The Last Adventure: A Final Beginning
by Undead Apparition
Summary: I strongly recommend reading my earlier work Infinite Accel Synchro but it isn't required. Having spent the past eight years away from home, Akiza Izinski is finally returning to Neo Domino City. But the city has changed since she has been gone. What secrets lurk in the new Scientific Research Centre? Who is the pale man she keeps seeing? And what secrets are Yusei hiding from her?
1. A New Story

_Swift feet slapped rapidly against the cold concrete stairs. Despite the summer sun that beat against the outside of the building, the emergency stairwell maintained a cool atmosphere and which perfectly counterbalanced the rising temperature of the runner. Although the insufferably tall building did have an elevator, certain things like keycards let only legal users in to use it. And, possibly reaffirmed by the fast pace on the last set of stairs, the runner was technically a trespasser. Despite what was supposed to be the most advanced security in the city, there was actually very few obstacles stopping them from gaining access to the top floors. All it took was a piece of wire to extend the alarm circuit on the ground floor's emergency exit and waiting for the cameras and guards to look the other way before a person could slip in. By law, emergency exits were supposed to open into the stairwell and only open at the exit. But with the danger of people getting trapped by locked doors and fire (not to mention the potential suing that could follow), workers generally just left the alarms wired up to catch people. With a similar mechanism on the top door as was on the bottom, another length of wire gave the figure enough room to squeeze around the door at the top of the stairwell. On the other side of the thick piece of metal lay an empty corridor with the elevator doors on the right and a frosted glass door on the left. Silently creeping over, stealthy hands carefully slipped tiny pieces of metal into the lock and gently soothed them back and forth. A silent click indicated the lock sliding into place and the intruder was quick to slip through the gap and engage the mechanism behind them again. "Child's play." Rising back to their feet, early relief threw away all the effort as caution dropped away and they turned to see a figure standing quietly before them._

" _Nicely done." Leaning heavily on a gnarled cane, bleary eyes glared out at the trespasser. "I used to have a friend who was good with locks." Both figures remained perfectly still, one shocked and the other patient. "Still, even he would struggle to make it this far. I take it," The moment was broken as the old lady carefully hobbled his way over towards the nearby kitchen area. "That you came up the stairwell? Do come in." One weak hand tried it's best to wrap around an empty glass on the worktop. "I doubt that you came all this way for nothing." A gentle touch carefully brushed aside his weak hand and filled the glass with water from the nearby tap. "Thank you."_

" _Sorry for breaking in." A shy smile flickered across the pale face. "I was aiming for the roof." Muttered grumblings accompanied the older hand waving for the newcomer to bring a drink for themselves along to the chairs by the window._

" _Tell me," Without the knobbled cane, both hands lifted the water high enough to take a sip. "What exactly were you about to go prancing around on my roof for?" Narrow shoulders gave a carefree shrug._

" _It's the summer solstice. I wanted to get the best view in the city." The old woman narrowed his eyes at the intruder._

" _I bet it's wonderful." Despite the strength of character that seemed to radiate from the shrivelled figure, little could slow the passage of nature that crowded his vision to a blurry haze. "Any clouds out?" Careful not to knock her glass over, the host slowly shuffled around in her seat until she faced the glass wall onto the outside garden area._

" _Just a few." The sun was slowly reaching it's zenith, cresting atop the sky at the top of the heavens. "Light ones mostly, scattered about." Under most other circumstances, the intruder would have snuck back out again. But her host didn't radiate enough calm content to mask the loneliness that cloaked her waking hours. "There we go." Journey half over, the great ball of fire slowly began a lazy descent towards the far horizon._

" _Ah, I bet it was lovely." Both hands gently folded across the top of the gnarled cane as it rested a few inches from the wrinkled chin. "So few people take the time to stop and look about themselves anymore. Too busy with all their technology. Heh, I'd like to unplug them all for a day and watch them squirm." With that thought, a wrinkled smile made itself known._

" _Sounds ingenious. It'd be nice if people could enjoy the world around them once in a while." Shadows covered the intruders eyes as she spoke the words._

" _You Duel much?" The sudden change in conversation seemed to stun the visitor for a moment._

" _Not often. My job keeps me buys a lot." Grumbled mutterings came from the figure in the bed. "I take it that you disagree?" One hand fumbled outwards for the guest in the chair to take._

" _Don't let your job take over your whole life. There's a world of adventures out there." Light bounced off the unseeing eyes as the past reflected behind them._

" _Sounds like you've had some adventures of your own."_

" _Bah!" Enough strength managed to negotiate to one finger to raise and point to the younger figure. "I've seen things that would make your hair curl." The pretty face slowly crept closer in expectation._

" _I don't suppose that you have a really good one up your sleeve?" Maybe this uninvited guest was just being polite. But after being the last one standing for so long, there was not much opportunity for talking. Stranger or not, it was nice to have a proper conversation with somebody again._

" _Let me think." It wasn't much of a thought process. There was really only one story that she could tell that nobody else could. "If you're willing to stick around for while, I know a good story." Shaky hands managed to drain the rest of the glass and wet her throat in preparation for the long tale._

" _What it about?" Unfeeling fingers traced out patterns in the worn wood of the cane._

" _My story? Hmm.. What to call it." The old woman grumbled as she turned titles around her spotted head. "I know." Neurons flashed deep inside her head and delivered the answer. "The Death of Yusei Fudo." Leaning back into her chair, she began to tell her tale._


	2. Prologue

The story of how Yusei Fudo dies actually began two years before the fact, in an isolated farmstead on another island across the water: Australia. A still figure lurked quietly on the very edges of the light as the residents went about going to their beds. At least, that was the illusion they were giving off. At least two persons circled the boundary with concealed weapons at all times and several cameras were roaming the outside of the house. Not even a mouse could get in without alerting the banks of monitors and sensors to the people inside.

But the dark person didn't care for the house itself, going instead for the nearby small mine that had three carefully concealed cameras pointed directly at the entrance. Tiny cameras of equal quality but smaller size whispered out of pockets and clung tightly to side of the larger models, recording and replacing the feed. Two minutes of recording later and the feed was switched to a looped image. One of the more stretched out guards passed by the edge of the fence and gave a look over the tree containing the third camera without even turning his head. Unless anybody had been staring straight into his eyes, nobody would have seen it. Physics trumping training, the tiny camera was positioned on the far side of it's parent and the figure who had planted it was nowhere to be seen. A minute of utter stillness passed as footsteps slowly vanished into the night again. One slender finger slid out of nowhere and wrapped a wire from the small camera around the larger one. To the monitors - and whoever was watching - the image was almost identical with only the merest fraction of an inch to give it away.

With the mine now unguarded, it was a simple matter to slip down the tunnels and to a room that was locked on the other side of several dozen infra-red beams. The largest gap was only a few inches long and barely two big. Even if the intruder had been made of putty, squeezing through would have been impossible. The sole occupants of the room were five glacial diamonds, each easily the size of a standard brick. Tiny scratches were carved across them in dramatically advanced knowledge. Enough information was in the one tiny room to dwarf the entirety of human advancement yet the intruder was only interested in a single tiny facet. Carefully positioning a camera lens in the invisible gap, the image slowly cropped out everything but what was needed.

Once done, the figure carefully withdrew a plain envelope as the exit slowly grew closer. The tall figure was on the far side of the compound now, completely shrouded by the darkness as a polar opposite of shorter and fatter walked by the camera-riddled tree. Carefully pressing against the mouth of the mine, almost a dozen minutes were wasted as the round figure slowed at the corner and gave a more obvious look at the camera. Thankfully, a set of lights inside the house turned on at just the right moment to break his concentration and instinct had the weapons raised and pointed at the change. By the time he turned back, the camera was gone and the envelope was propped dead centre in the middle of the renewed video feed. It would take a few minutes for the recycled footage to filter out of the system but the thief would be long gone by then with a ghostly address slowly materializing in the picture.


	3. Arrivals

It is a sad fact of humanity that the majority sets scientific advancement far behind the latest shiny gadget or sensational film star. Of the heaving masses, a mere fraction of them had the presence of mind to recognise the work that had gone into their everyday items but even fewer took the initiative to contribute in any way to the ongoing advancements. Many technological upgrades only came through when funded by the high profit margins that lay on the other side for the first company to do so. Science – for the sake of science – was a harsh and gruelling undertaking. Thousands of institutions around the world exist to solely chase one idea and many of them fell short from lack of funding.

There were – and always would be – select organisations that were granted extensive government funding and attracted the support of dozens of wealthy patrons eager to prove their generosity. CERN was one such name, the New Domino Scientific Research Centre was another.

Only a few weeks after what the local and national governments insisted was an 'unforeseeable corruption of a classified use of the KaibaCorp holographic technology' – but which the residents of the city largely clung to the truth of their nightmare with the insane Z-One – Yusei Fudo had designed and built a network of Momentum Reactors around the city. In an unexpected turn of events, he had then volunteered to share the technology with the rest of the world on condition that the accepting countries agree to share their new source of energy with all the others. Of all the objections being thrown up – cultural and political – the most surprising was that Yusei was not technically intelligent enough to have drawn up the plans himself. Lacking professional (or official) education of any sort forced him to play the role of an apprentice and assistant to get by.

Over the course of six months – six intensely arduous months of little sleep and heavy work – the young scientist undertook a heavily compacted course under the directions of his eccentric teacher. When he was done, the New Domino University made him an official physicist and people started paying attention when 'Doctor' replaced 'Mr'. Petitioning for the construction of a new research organisation, Dr Yusei Fudo was granted enough funding to buy several buildings in an industrial estate. The other residents enjoyed laughing as Yusei, Zigzix and barely a dozen other scientists scurried around their few buildings at various speeds, usually either shambling from lack of sleep or running to deliver important news. Laughter quieted to sniggers and eventual silence as breakthrough after breakthrough began filtering out from the poorly maintained buildings.

Having proven themselves capable with little funding and poor facilities, Dr Fudo and his team began attracting the attention of circles beyond the scientific community. One day – barely ten weeks into his new profession and title – a call came in over the public phone. Most of their calls so far had been crank, drunk or reporters eager to get hold of the World Duelling Champion turned scientist. This call, however, was what changed the New Domino Scientific Research Centre from a group of near-retiring genii, the young hotshot and his partner working in a dusty old building to the forefront of scientific advancement. This call came from Kame Game.

Once they had managed to establish their identity, the company representative managed to get Yusei on the phone. Until now, Yusei had rejected any and all deals offered by the corporate world. Each had come with too many strings attached and suits from high in the company looking down on his group. This had failed to sit well with the prodigy. Growing up being treated as dirt had left him with thick skin for himself but little patience when it came to others. Kame Game had done their research and gone down to the proverbial factory floor and grabbed the nearest warm body.

"Slow down, slow... slow down." As much of their research was theoretical instead of practical, the entirety of the staff was gathered in to watch Yusei navigate trying not to offend a working woman without accepting the deal she had been assigned selling to him.

" _I'm sorry, I work in the complaints compartment, my manager just grabbed me ten minutes ago and_ " Holding the handset several inches from his face, the genius briefly guessed how long it would for the babbling to stop. Seventeen minutes was the final number.

"Calmly tell me what this is about." After another five minutes, Hana – she had introduced herself several times – was able to start speaking.

" _Kame Game wants to hire you. A new booster pack is launching next month._ " Yusei had seen the adverts in the media. " _They want you to Duel their training simulator – using cards from the new booster packs._ " It had certainly been a tempting argument. Getting hired for Duelling could provide them with funds to increase and continue their research. As much as he wanted to continue his studies, Yusei wanted to avoid mixing his previous career with his current one.

"I'm sorry, but I have to decline. Don't try and offer more money." Hana had already been drawing breath to increase the sum when he had started speaking. "It is not going to work."

" _Hang on,_ " Papers rifled down the line as Hana tried to track down the contract amidst countless piles of information and notes. " _Uuuumm, Kame Game isn't going to pay you_." Curiosity kept him on the line as the complaint processor slowly ploughed through the contract. " _If you agree to help launch the booster packs, Kame Game will donate fifty million dollars to Cards for Kids._ " Yusei was familiar with the charity. It donated cards to children in underprivileged backgrounds. " _In the event that you refuse, Kame Game is still willing to donate ten million._ " Of course, Yusei had decided to call the bluff.

Two days later, he called back, had Hana dragged to the most important office in her complex and given another copy of the contract. "I'll do it." True to their word, Kame Game had donated their money and Yusei was going to see them carry out the rest. That was the turning point. Instead of direct financial support, Kame Game promoted the SRC wide and clear to the rest of the world and their own investors. Within months, the laughter that had echoed around the industrial estate had disappeared. With bulging pockets, piles of applications and little proper equipment or facilities, the Research Centre had to expand. So they went and bought out the rest of the estate.

Within a year, Yusei was arranging for expensive equipment to be flown in, setting up retirement funds and daycare plans and orchestrating press conferences on the odd occasion that an explosion in one of the laboratories was overheard by the city. After two, there was a strong competition to work at the leading scientific establishment. Shortly after celebrating their three-year anniversary, the NDSRC officially announced the successful launch of the international Momentum Network.

Many people were amazed at how involved Yusei Fudo could get in any problem. When a department head was accused of channelling funds into his private accounts, he spent three straight days going through transactions records and bank statements going back to before the SRC was even thought of. Sadly, that particular incident ending with an open position after they were found to be true. Despite that unfortunate setback, there were formal studies undertaken to determine exactly how he could understand and unravel virtually any puzzle put to him. In an effort to dissuade any rumours, the man some were starting to call 'the smartest man alive' gave irregular blood and urine tests to disprove any drug use.

Of course, during some of the problems, Yusei would occasionally become so focused on his work that entire meetings had taken place around him without a single word making an effect on him. Some people had actually pulled elaborate pranks on him during his mental forays into the realms of theory. Roughly one in five ended poorly when he 'awoke' from his reverie. On the latest occasion, six successful traps had preceded it.

"Detective Trudge." Yusei didn't even look up from his calculations he was writing with his left hand. "If you don't remove that pencil from my ear, I will personally stick it somewhere both embarrassing and painful."

Trudge sighed as he withdrew the pencil from Yusei's ear with a theatrical flourish. "You seemed so intent on finishing from your work that I couldn't bear to disturb you." Yusei put down his own pencil and spared Trudge a glance. The years had been kind to his friend but even kindness could only restrain his hair to grey instead of letting it drop from his head as he aged.

"Would you mind telling me what you're doing here?" Trudge slumped himself in the seat on the other side of Yusei's cluttered expanse of a desk.

"I was passing by and thought that I should probably drop in. I haven't seen you since Mina's birthday." Yusei furrowed his eyebrows as he began picking pencils from his hair.

"That was last week." Trudge rolled his eyes with a weary smile. Everything that he did seemed to be wearier recently. So much grey had sprouted in his hair that the black was in dangerous chance of losing and his scar had faded from an angry red to a soft pink.

"Yusei, Mina's birthday was two months ago." Yusei grunted sourly as he caught his mistake and another pencil.

"Sorry, I've been"

"Busy with work." Trudge finished the sentence for him. "Remind me, when was the last time that you weren't busy with work?" Yusei was ready for this one.

"Last Monday." His iron-clad argument trundled out, right on cue. "I took an hour out of my schedule to help old Mr Nakamura move." Trudge rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"The way I heard it, he was moving offices and you went along to help and conveniently ended up unravelling some cosmic string theories." Yusei grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, but he did have a bad back." Trudge levelled him a fairly direct stare.

"Wasn't this because you showed up just late enough that he pulled it trying to move his desk and he had to sit down for a while? You know, long enough to start a conversation?" Yusei could feel the rust setting into his well-oiled argument.

"You seem to be awfully well informed." He narrowed his eyes until they gleamed with suspicion. "I'm willing to be that Dr Nakamura and you had a little chat on the way in." Trudge nodded happily as Yusei leapt to safer ground. "In any case, did you hear the news about Crow?" His companion burst out laughing, the sound bouncing off the walls and providing enough harsh chuckles to fill a dirty joke.

"That guy thinks that he can take Jack in a few months. Man, I would love some tickets to that show." Yusei nodded wistfully, an errant reminder floating through his mind.

"He mentioned in an interview that he would demand some tickets for himself. I guess he plans on giving them out to the kids at Martha's." Yusei briefly picked his pencil back up to scribble down another line of equations on the paper it had been resting on. "Chances are, Jack might have a few tickets to spare for some old friends." They both tried to envisage such an event without much success.

"Nah." The pair of them shared a second moment of mirth, a softer laugh filling the air this time around as Yusei pulled one more of Trudge's hidden pencils from his hair. "That reminds me, how are things back at your office? You mentioned some upgrade or the other last time you were down here." Trudge leant back in his chair as he did his best to reach an itch on his spine.

"The whiz kids down in our labs," He ignored the sarcastically rolled eyes of Yusei at the idea that anybody with half a brain would be working under Trudge instead of with him, "Figured out some way to increase the output power of our Duel Disks by a factor of ten." Yusei baulked as he ran the numbers in his mind. A good Duelist could inflict a few scratches here and there. "Obviously we will only be giving these upgraded versions to select officers that can pass rigorous psych tests. Putting the power to tear down buildings in the hands of every officer would be like handing out live hand grenades to a bunch of monkeys." Trudge broke into a good-humoured chuckle at the pictures in his mind. "Best part is, the idiots haven't been able to get more than a single Disk working." He broke out into gales of laughter. "The utter morons claim that they need some unique element that doesn't naturally occur on this planet!" Yusei had to agree, it sounded more like a cop-out than an actual advancement in science.

"On that note," Yusei noticed the clock hoisted on the wall. "I have to go and wait for something to land on this planet." Yusei reached over his shoulder to begin pulling on his jacket as Trudge rose from his comfortable chair with a sight of regret.

"And you said that you would stop doodling when you had visitors." Yusei laid down his pencil and massaged his aching right hand.

"You're still here, aren't you? And I'm not writing." He negotiated his numb hand down the sleeve and pulled his jacket on tight. "So I think that I kept my word." Trudge shook his head mournfully as he held open the door for Yusei.

"Semantics. The last line of defence." Yusei shrugged as he pulled the door closed.

"Better victory than defeat." Trudge whistled cheerfully for several minutes as he shuffled around everything on Yusei's desk, lowered the chair to its minimal height and tore out the lever.

"Point Trudge." Glancing around the room once more, he adjusted the lamp on the desk by a few degrees, twisted the dead plant on the window fully around and shoved the filing cabinets an entire centimetre across the carpet. When he next returned, Yusei would probably not notice immediately but it would hopefully niggle away at him for at least a few days. Then again, he would be busy with his guest. As the saying went, doctor-doctor.

* * *

Every student to study at university has their own nightmare tales of the accommodations. Toilets that explode whenever taps were used, mould that ate away from the inside of the walls until they were thin enough to see through. One especially nasty story usually involved the male students clogging up the drains with their... 'pastimes'.

As if the living conditions were horrible enough, decades of experience had taught the learning institutions that securing down a heavy deposit was the easiest way to prevent any lasting damage to their rented rooms. Yet once the money was in their accounts, many were loathe to part with it again. If even so much as a single scratch was found on the wall, an entire repainting would be taken from the deposit before returning the remaining handful of pennies.

Most students opted to leave the facilities as swiftly as they could. Many endured until their second or third years – long enough to build connections in the city and find friends willing to share the costs of living – before moving out and finding houses or apartments to share. Even then, times were hard for many. Between several jobs and long classes, hundreds of potential candidates for degrees tended to flame out and lose their futures even as they were saddled with hideous debts. Those that managed to make it through to the end generally wanted to curl into comfy beds and sleep for the next ten to fifteen decades.

Sleeping postponed, they would then be forced to endure rigorous training and countless hours of tedious, repetitive tasks. Starting at the bottom of the pile put them on the lowest rungs. In the case of doctors, this left them redoing dressings, filling out the paperwork and dealing with the most incredibly ridiculous patients.

One encounter that stood out ahead of the rest was when a young lady collapsed in an emergency room. Ruby lips quirked at the memory. When the woman had awoken the next day, she had turned from her native German and was somehow fluent in Japanese. Gazing out over the field of flowers, the young doctor reflected on how the case had turned out. Fluent in both languages herself, she had spent several weeks tutoring the scared patient in the language of her home country. In gratitude for going above and beyond the normal scope of duty, a generous uncle had supplied a free plane ticket by way of thanks.

In spite of the money saved, the lucky passenger was starting to long for the squalor of the dorm rooms she had long since left behind. "Doctor?" As many of the other passengers had decided to enjoy the onboard bar, the last minute flyer had chosen to actually make use of their currently picturesque landing area. Wild flowers adorned much of the valley yet a private airstrip was remarkably well kept. A couple tired of the outside world had been given a cottage and tasked with the upkeep of a small hanger and weeding the airstrip.

"Yes?" Grass stains would be difficult to remove from the heavy trousers but it was worth the walk through the grass as one of the crew gave high-legged strides to avoid the same fate.

"We've almost got through the ice. Should be taking off any time now." Their plane – the Markov – was the prototype outline for a new fleet of adaptable planes. A hitherto major drawback to planes was their inability to change functions. The Markov would form the basis of a new breed of design, comfortable seats removable at the press of a button and the floor peeling away to let in cargo of any shapes or sizes. This – it's maiden flight – had been opened to a select handful of twenty with the full cabin crew of eight.

As with many first attempts, a few problems had arisen. Rattling had plagued the lower deck and it was barely two hours into the flight when a problem with the forward wheel compartment was discovered. A gap in the seals had formed ice to start forming around the mechanism. They could manage a maximum of four hours between landing and chiselling off the crust. So it was that they had ended up borrowing this tiny island of serenity.

"I suppose that you will get us there this time?" One especially aggressive man was trying to push the idea that he was a rich and successful stock broker. It was clearly apparent to the rest of the travellers that he was both inexperienced, far too young and quickly fell into an obvious trap by somebody who actually knew what they were talking about.

"Sir, if you fasten your seatbelt, we will be taking off shortly." As much as people like him tended to enjoy intimidating smaller women, there was nothing more confusing and terrifying than one taller and more muscular. Gently seating herself beside the gentle old man that was her travelling companion – who had confided in her that he was secretly the company owner (though she didn't really believe him, the pensioner was a kindly and slightly confused man) – the physician smiled gently at the exhausted crew. Though their passengers were allowed to nap whenever they wanted, the crew were contractually compelled to remain awake during the entire journey – delays and all.

"Tell me, dear," Vaguely patting her fingers with a clammy hand, the self-professed company owner stared intently at the headrest in front of Akiza. "Why are you mmm, going to Japan?"

"I was studying medicine in Germany." She had to raise her voice to the point of shouting to make sure that he could hear. "But there were some problems with my visa." It had taken several weeks of tireless phone calls and forms before she could accept the inevitable. Nobody she had spoken with could figure out why her visa was being rejected but the computers kept throwing out her applications with a startling variety of errors. Eventually, they had delayed her beyond the point that the young doctor could heal the situation and she had simply decided to move home. "So I'm moving back to Japan."

"Mmm," Dropping the doddering old man act, her companion suddenly had perfect clarity in his old eyes. "My old friend Matteo told me about you. Said you helped out his niece." Leaning in, the deceptive plane owner dropped to a conspirational tone. "I'll do you a deal – I pretend to have a heart attack and you give me the kiss of life?" Something about the kindly nature of the gentleman elevated the line from 'creepy' to 'humorous'.

"Sorry," She patted the cold fingers. "Wrong kind of doctor." Smiling, the wrinkled head slipped back against the cushioned headrest again.

"That young lady you helped out is my god-daughter." Patting her hand gently, the owner of the plane grimaced as it bucked wildly in the air. "Take my card." An impossibly white piece of plastic was forced into her grip. "Think of it as an all-expenses return flight to anywhere you want." Another jostle had him squeeze his eyes shut and pressing back into the chair. Markov designs streamlined and eliminated most turbulence so the air outside had to be extremely powerful.

"For a plane owner, you don't seem to like flying." Glancing at the card revealed the name Zakhar and a phone number. The German accent was flawless and gave no hint of his Russian heritage.

"I trust myself at the front of a plane." Blood was definitely being cut off from his fingers as the grip fastened around their shared armrest. "Anywhere else makes me uneasy." As the flight settled back down, Zakhar managed a queasy smile as he met the eyes of his companion. "Have you ever felt like you should be safe following somebody else's lead but are actually afraid deep inside?" Something about the question struck a cord inside her.

"No." Thankful for the window seat, she turned to gaze out over the view. For the rest of the flight, little conversation circled around the cabin as Markov began the final stretch of the journey.

When the Markov finally landed – several hours later than scheduled – all the special arrangements which had been made had also been cancelled. Instead of cameras, bells and whistles and the local mayor attending, only a few hardcore photographers were able to take pictures and all luggage on the plane was simply added onto the flight in the next bay.

Airport arrivals are – to a fault – underwhelming. Passengers disembark, collect their luggage and leave as quickly as possible. Pilots and cabin crew tend to find their accommodations and try to squeeze in as much sleep as is humanly possible or head for the nearest coffee supply to keep them awake long enough to endure the next flight on their list.

As it was, the luggage Akiza had been expecting to collect had simply vanished during the journey from her plane to the conveyor barely fifty feet away. A bag containing her old clothes and a few personal effects appeared but the one containing her newer outfits and important paperwork was nowhere to be seen. Filling in several forms promised to return it within the next month or offer a meagre sum of money.

Another inescapable fact of airports are the crowds, day or night. This makes them rife targets for pickpockets, scam artists and other undesirable elements. On her irritated and aggressive way out, another pedestrian collided with her and stumbled over her luggage on the way.

"Sorry, sorry." Fumbling hands thrust the case back into her grip as a mop of untidy hair continued on the way.

Muttering curses under her breath, Akiza walked out into the openness of flowing air. had expected a lift ten hours previously but it was now the middle of the night and she doubted she would arrive at her destination without using a taxi. The lights overlooking the pickup zone were down for maintenance and she had practically walked into the navy blue car before she realised it was there. A faint reflection in the window alerted her to the arrival of its owner. "Nice car." Her driver politely lifted her bags and put them into his boot. "Vintage?" Yusei gave a carefree smile as he shifted about the odds and ends in the trunk to better accommodate her belongings.

"Built it myself. Bought the model of an old collector a few years ago in bad shape. There was a lot of work to do and I've converted it from an old internal combustion engine to an Ener-D one." He politely held the door open as his friend slid into the low seat. Akiza felt the padded seat gently mould itself to her bruised and battered spine. Advanced as her flight had been, the seats left a certain something to be desired and she found herself desperately hoping at several points that they didn't destroy all the bones in her back. Yusei slid into the seat beside her and gently pulled the car into the slow moving traffic. "How was your flight?" Akiza rolled her sleepy head and mustered enough energy to give him a look of extreme doubt. "That good?" Yusei would have turned his had to smile at her but decided not to move his eyes from the road as he heard her begin to snore gently beside him. "So much for polite conversation." Yusei felt his own eyes start to droop with tiredness but forced himself to keep his eyes open. Not yet. He still had some time left before he had to sleep. "Welcome home." Though the words were heartfelt and brimming with the possibility of a reunion many years overdue, Akiza felt herself fade back into the darkness of deep sleep once again.


	4. Interview

Being deprived of sleep, emotionally drained and mentally exhausted by moving back from Germany, Akiza slept for almost fifteen hours. It might have gone on longer but Yusei had neglected to close the curtains above the bed where she was sleeping. Afternoon sun eventually landed directly on her face and forced to grudgingly accept the gruesome reality of the waking world. That and the small furry face pressed up against her own.

"Mroow?" During Zero Reverse, thousands of stray animals of all varieties had escaped to populate the streets in the aftermath. After thousands of hours work, many of these creatures where captured and cared for by the city as they were given new owners and rehabilitated after their ordeal. Then Ark Cradle appeared in the skies and animal rights activists took the opportunity to unlock all the kennels and pounds across the city with no thought for the aftermath of their actions.

Although many had been recaptured, some species – cats, dogs and rodents leading the race – had begun prolific breeding and even begun sneaking into houses to obtain food. It appeared that Yusei had left the door to her room slightly ajar and this cat had managed to sneak in unannounced.

"Come on." Carefully picking the cat up in her arms, Akiza tried her best to avoid bending the comically large ears. From the smell in the room, either the furry feline had never been bathed or the travelling had pushed her from tired doctor to walking biohazard.

"Meew." Struggling against the grip Akiza had it in, the cat attempted to push the arms away and run to freedom as they exited the room and started towards the common living area. Yusei appeared to have been up for some time and was seated amidst piles of books and mountains of paper at the small table in the kitchen area. A steaming mug was held unnoticed by one hand and seemed constantly on the verge of spilling boiling liquid on his lap.

"Morning." Whatever he was currently studying had him enthralled enough to risk not looking up and losing his place. Mindful of the worn and uneven steps, Akiza negotiated her way down the stairs to deposit the cat outside the stained glass doors. It didn't go easily, attempting to scurry back in several times before she could finally close the doors. Upon returning to the second floor, it appeared that Yusei had found a point to break in his research and actually notice her arrival. "There's coffee, kettle, cups." Turning back to his research, Akiza could understand his distance. She had kept him waiting for several more hours than he had planned and there was always more work that needed doing. "What were you doing downstairs?" There are some questions that should never be answered before coffee. This was one of them.

"A stray cat got into my room. I was putting it outside." Still in the midst of tidying up his work, it took a moment for the message to get past deaf ears and reach his brain.

"Light coat, big ears? Kinda friendly?" Thankful for the gift of caffeine, Akiza was slowly dragging herself back into full consciousness but not fast enough to pick up on the warning tones in Yusei's voice.

"Does it keep bugging you? There was this great animal shelter who helped out when a dog kept knocking over my parent's bins." Her mother being slightly allergic to dogs, the tufts of fur left behind after each raid constantly invoked awkward splotches of colour. After several homemade traps by her eccentric husband failed, he finally relented to calling in the doggy authorities.

"Does this cat," Turning back around, Akiza saw the same feral cat now smugly perched atop a pile of books on the table. "Look anything like the stray you saw?" Leaning forward in his chair, Akiza received a secret look known only to women that loosely translated as 'he's mine, I win' as Yusei scratched the creature behind the corner of the jaw.

"How did it get back in?" As in on cue, the cat turned to look at an open window overlooking the alleyway behind Poppo Time. It somehow appeared to have clambered up the wall and through the opening in the same time Akiza had taken to simply walk up the stairs.

"She lives here." Carefully walking up an arm, the cat wrapped itself around Yusei's neck like a living fur scarf. "Akiza, meet Hoshi." Reaching up to rub one small paw, the cat shifted away from the contact just the slightest amount.

"You have a cat?" She would have never pegged her old friend for a cat person. It just didn't fit with how he presented himself to the world.

"Only technically." Wincing as Hoshi nibbled affectionately on an ear, Yusei pushed the feline head out of biting range of his face. "She was illegally smuggled into the country but there was no way of determining from where. Somebody passed her along to Trudge and she ended up crawling into my bag when I dropped by his office to pass along some forms." Reaching down, one paw began batting against his chest until Hoshi was gently rubbed behind the ears. "She's a Devon Rex, probably from Europe. There are a few other breeds mixed in so she has a good coat." The breed rang a few bells in Akiza's mind.

One of her many roommates had been a cat enthusiast – meaning obsessed – and insisted on showing her a particularly ugly breed of feline. With little fur and large ears, the Devon Rex were generally for 'serious breeders'. They were highly intelligent but offered little in the way of comfort to most people. "Really, she has a pet human. Everything else is just for appearances." Dropping her head in mock submission, the crafty cat stared up at Akiza with a gaze to melt the hearts but a vibe that she was definitely not welcome. "Hey," Broken from her glaring match with the angry feline, Akiza tried not to feel guilty. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for your interview?" Wary not to take her eyes off the angry feline currently wrapped around Yusei's neck, Akiza skulked away to shower. Too many hours cooped on the plane had left her with the aroma of several rotting carcases. Well, maybe not quite that bad but her sense of smell had shut itself down some hours ago.

Whilst she had been away at university, Yusei had taken the opportunity to remodel. A gleaming bathtub had been tucked beneath the window and a marble side was packed with crisp towels in every shade of colour. If her friend ever decided to forgo science in favour of running a hotel, there was certainly potential. As the warm water washed the grime of travelling from her tired body, Akiza tried to focus on her upcoming interview. What little time she had thought she would have to prepare had been wasted on the constant delays of her flight. Worse, the perfect – and highly expensive – outfit she had chosen for the interview was in her lost luggage. Short of arriving naked, there was no way this could be closer to a nightmare.

Once she had doubled Yusei's water bill for the month – and changed several shades of colour in the process - Akiza grabbed two of the biggest towels she could find and wrapped them around herself. Eager to avoid the mistakes of days gone by, she scurried into her room and locked the door behind her before Yusei could even look up from his paperwork. As temporary as their arrangement would be, she was not inclined to risk falling into the same traps as before. Instead, she crammed on the only other set of clothes she still had with her – a simple pair of faded denim jeans and plain woollen jumper – before the towels had fully dried the water from her body. It was highly uncomfortable and a large part of her already regretted it but pride and practicality prevented her from undressing and redressing all over again. Instead, she went out to grab another cup of coffee and bring herself fully awake.

"Behave." Even without looking around, Yusei had been able to sense Hoshi sneaking up to savage Akiza's ankle. Not to be deterred, a quick nibble satisfied the cat before she slunk away to mope somewhere else.

"Nice cat you've got there. Reminds me of Jack." Dropping his pen in shock, the bedraggled scientist actually burst into laughter. It had never occurred to him that the angry cat who curled around his neck to sleep shared some aggressive traits with his brother.

"Is it the furr-ious temper?" Shock darted from one Duellist to another. Somewhere in the past few years, he had picked up the ability to make really bad puns.

"Yeah, really catty." Future generations would look back on their poor jokes and wonder exactly how either of them had ever managed to pass themselves off as sane members of society. It was a question that plagued many of their friends, families and colleagues had also shared.

"How are you doing for time?" Rolling back her sleeve, Akiza checked on her slightly damp watch. To say she was pushing for time would be stretching it. Her interview was in a little over thirty minutes and the hospital was across town. "There are some things I need to check out on at the hospital if you need a lift." It wasn't an offer of help – Akiza would have turned it down in a second. It was just that they were both going to be heading in the same direction so it would be perfectly acceptable to share a ride.

"What are you working on at the hospital?" She had seen plenty of clinical trials for her moral stance to be made clear. Whilst occasionally unfair, they were a necessary evil to help medicine progress. One thing that always broke her hearts was seeing those nearest to dying put on the placebo list. To a computer, they were just names on a list but to those suffering from the disease, it was an empty hope that filled the ends of their lives.

"One of their wards is testing a more efficient computer model the SRC designed." Although hundreds and thousands of hours went into most of the projects at the SRC, Yusei tried to share credit between departments where he could. It took a certain level of diplomacy but he was able to balance the varying personalities and prides with the grace of a skilled politician. "It needs to be checked up on every few weeks." Deftly typing a message into his phone, Yusei slipped it and his car keys into his pocket.

* * *

Once at the hospital, the pair quickly separated. A gaggle of complaining nurses instantly whisked her driver away before he could even get a word in edgeways. Before he had even vanished from sight, a passing gurney shoved Akiza aside. Regardless of where it was the world, there was nothing as hectically busy as a hospital in full flow. As patients and doctors flowed about her, Akiza gradually became attuned to the various patients and problems that moved past. A small inner-voice whispered medications and procedures that would be carried out as she fought her way to the receptionist desk. Either a small epidemic or large car accident was backing up the entire system and all three headsets were hard at work trying to stem the constant barrage of calls and direct anybody who approached the desk.

"No, Dr Clark is not available... Yes, I'm sure. Because he's currently in the morgue. As a corpse!" The more snappy receptionist lifted and slammed a handset instead of simply tapping the button on her headset. "What can I help you with?" Despite tired eyes, there was still a tinge of politeness available to beautiful women who showed up with a smile.

"I'm here to see Dr Shiozaki? Akiza Izinski. We had an appointment a few days ago but I was unable to make it." Tired keys slowly pulled up the Dean's schedule to see if she was telling the truth.

"Okay. I see your appointment. Dr Shiozaki hasn't filled in his calendar for today but you're welcome to wait at his office. Third floor." Another call stopped her from giving more explicit directions as the public took hold of her attention once again.

After the damage she and Ark Cradle had caused, the building had been left almost dangerously unstable. It had taken several hundred hours to fix everything that was wrong with it and entire corridors and wards had been shifted to accommodate cutting-edge upgrades. Careless workmen had probably thought it funny to put up old signs amidst the new ones and Akiza spent several minutes pacing aimlessly between urology and proctology with a mix of new and old signs.

"Excuse me," With a choice of the two most disgusting departments possible, Akiza settled instead on the least uncomfortable/most professional looking patient she could find. "Do you know where Dr Shiozaki's office is?" For the last time that day, luck stuck with her. It turned out that her guide was a frequent visitor to the hospital for regular dialysis treatments. Boredom and early arrivals had given plenty of spare time to explore the rest of the hospital.

"Down this corridor, take a left, two rights and it's at the end of the hallway." Another rush of patients and orderlies forced them apart before she could give thanks for the directions. When the rush finally managed to clear, only a few patients were left in the corridor with her. Already several days late for her interview, Akiza wasted no more time as she virtually sprinted down the halls to the Dean's office. Plunging through a door, she ploughed straight into an unsuspecting gangle of limbs that had chosen that exact moment to fly backwards.

"Sorry, sorry." It was almost before the victim had hit the floor before the apologies came. Papers had scattered across the floor and she scrambled to get them all. "I'm late for an appointment with Dr Shiozaki." Fate stepped to one side and let cruel chance take a turn at the wheel. Glaring up from the cold discomfort of the floor, the Dean of Medicine for New Domino Hospital saw what would have once been his interviewee.

"Oh, I thought that my assistant called you." A glaringly empty desk stood testament to the fact that no, they had not called or even turned up for work that day. "I suppose you might as well come in." Far from the almost begging tones she had become used to over the phone, there was more than a smidgen of irritation in his voice.

"Is there something wrong?" Carelessly dumping the patient files onto his desk, a few fell to the floor and dragged Dr Shiozaki down in her estimation a few notches. Picking them back up, Akiza split the pile into two and seated herself in the guest chair as he collapsed into his plush leather one.

"Look, it's nice to see you," Observing a few meetings with her father had taught Akiza exactly when people served up insincere platitudes. "But there have been some... developments since we last talked. We can't hire you." It was a complete reversal from his previous stances. Everything from fast-track promotions to increased salaries had been offered to try and get an earlier start but to no avail. Flattery and bribery aside, she had really been looking forward to moving back home and helping people. Being turned away at the final step was a painful shock. "We called your college to get some paperwork started whilst you were delayed. Frankly, they have no formal record of your qualifications on file. A few of your professors gave some glowing recommendations but that's just not enough to go on."

"But I have all my qualifications!" True, copies had been kept – and now lost – by the Dian Keto College but the originals were safely in her possession. "At least, I did." Safely that is, in her lost bundle of luggage. As well as her best clothes and jewellery, now irreplaceable documents were left to the mercy of the cruel winds of fate.

"That's not all. Our second choice has revealed some worrying habits of yours. Threatening colleagues and stealing materials would not be tolerated at" Wood fell to the floor as Akiza shot upright and leant on the desk with barely controlled fury.

"You hired _Streiter_ over me?" Shiozaki coldly rose to his own feet and met her gaze with a prepared calm.

"He said that you would try something like this. What next, scream harassment and threaten to sue unless you get your way?" Everything he was saying contained a single grain of truth that had been twisted and covered up with lies. At one point, Steiter had made unwelcome advances and only threats of expulsion had made him back down. It was a time that still curled her stomach but Akiza had learnt to push the memories down whenever they surfaced. "Look, you're not welcome here and if you try practising medicine in Japan, you will be arrested." Afraid that she might lash out if she stayed any longer, Akiza thundered out the door, slamming it behind her hard enough to crack the wood around the lock. Although she didn't know it at the time, Shiozaki would spend the next hour frantically trying to pry open the door to escape again.

Down in the waiting room, Yusei carefully finished inking in the last line of a complex equation that would take an average mind several months to learn how to unravel. It was a lonely habit of his to doodle such equations wherever he went in hopes that somebody who found them would have enough intelligence to identify the phone number concealed therein. So far, five undiscovered genii had made their way to his institution and made significant contributions despite a lack of actually relevant qualifications. "So what are you in for?" A wizened bag of bones pulled to a halt in front of him. "Something serious, I hope. Give us gals a bit more time to test old charms." Credit where credit was due, Yusei actually laughed and leant in closer. For some reason, only the elderly seemed capable of having an honest conversation without fawning over his academic or Duelling skills.

"My friend's having an interview upstairs. I'm here for moral support, charming good looks and transportation." Tapping his hand in an affectionate move, the patient actually cackled.

"As long as you've got a car outside, two out of three isn't bad." Adopting a wounded posture, Yusei mimed an arrow digging into his heart. Few people could match wits with him on an equal field but pensioners generally had enough experience to put him on the back foot.

Seeing the elevator opening behind his new friend abruptly changed the situation. To the untrained eye, she appeared angry enough to change the colour in her cheeks. But Yusei could see just how close she was to tears. "Gotta run." Spinning around in her chair, the patient saw with experience what Yusei saw with knowledge.

"Take care now." Careful to avoid breaking anything, Yusei shook a wrinkled hand and briskly walked over to his shaken friend.

"How did it go?" Despite her learned good nature, there was still enough vindictiveness in Akiza to get revenge when she was wronged. Instead of breaking into tears, she steered Yusei past the nearby nurses station and raised her voice slightly. Not enough to be obvious but just enough to ensure she would be overheard.

"Dr Shiozaki hired some hack called Streiter. He's barely able to draw blood but somehow he's been given my job. I asked if there was some way I could start as a nurse and you know what he said?" Turning on the spot, she slapped him across the chest as they stopped outside the station. "He said that he was going to be cutting the nurses budget in a few days." Dragging Yusei away before her words could really settle in, a small part of her enjoyed the slowly spreading looks of shock and outrage that preceded the upcoming strike. Despite her strong front, Akiza managed to make it barely off the hospital grounds before tears started leaking out the corners of her eyes. Careful not to push too hard, Yusei whisked them both to back to his car before she could actually start crying. In the time it took him to walk from one side of the car to the other, she managed to get a tighter grip on her emotions and wipe the beginnings of her tears away.

Twisting around in his seat, Yusei placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I can set a team of greedy lawyers on him, just say the word." A wet chuckle managed to squeeze out through the pain. It was a testament to his caring nature that he was willing to pull a few strings.

"Shiozaki's probably going to be dealing with a nurses strikes soon. Let's let him get through that before we call the hordes." Still tempted by the thought of actually getting legal help, Yusei settled instead on the thought of caring for his friend.

"Are you okay?" Pushing a smile onto her face, Akiza finally faced him.

"No. No, I'm really not okay. I want to go back to Poppo Time, get into some clean clothes and then sleep for as long as I can." Cramming down all the righteous thoughts that involved Shiozaki disappeared from the face of the planet, Yusei slowly pulled from the hospital parking lot. Desperate not to appear weak, Akiza faced the window and let a few locks of hair hide the edges of her face. For his part, the driver chose not to push for conversation and the passenger was the slightest bit gladder for it. The regular purr of the engine soothed them both as misery continued to grow both in the car and – for a freshly freed Shiozaki welcomed by the faces of angry nurses – in the hospital they were leaving behind.

 _ **Hello again! I just wanted to apologise for skipping out on last month's chapter (and the lateness of this one). A few warning signs sent me to hospital and I have been somewhat distracted since. To make it up to you, I will do two chapters in one month somewhere down the line. See you soon.**_


	5. Shopping

Barely a day after returning home, Akiza found herself without a job, profession or any of the qualifications she had spent the last eight years training for. The only difference since she had left was a sharp decline in local popularity and a gathering of steep student debts that she would have to pay back regardless of how little money she had coming in. Already quite off-balance, she had dealt with these latest developments in one of the two most popular ways she had encountered at university: sleeping for as many hours as she could without falling into a coma. Whilst not perhaps the most mature approach, it had the powerful advantage of letting her subconscious work through the issues without her having to be awake to realise it. Also, Yusei was overdue to go shopping and didn't have any drinks strong enough to completely dull the pain. So, she slept.

Had she not spent her entire journey home without sleep, it would have been almost impossible for her to slumber as much as she had in recent days. After ten hours, she grew restless and threw back her covers in the cold pre-dawn hours. Deciding that she might as well get up and face the day, Akiza dove into the bathroom before Hoshi could make a dart for her ankles. The warm water helped remove the last of her tenseness and loosened her muscles. Jumping back into her own room, she shifted through the slim pickings of her clothes until a non-hideous match appeared.

When she finally emerged from her room, the sun had fully risen and Yusei had seated himself at the kitchen table with a newspaper and notepad as he browsed the latest scientific advancements.

"Morning." A cup of tea was cooling beside his right hand as it jotted notes on the lines. "Anything planned for today?"

"I've got a date." Combing hair through her fingers, Akiza fought to remove the last patches of dampness in the chill morning. "Shouldn't be too long." Gnawing at his treacherous pencil, nothing could break the concentration of the scientist as he continued to interact on auto-pilot.

"Anyone I know?" Finding no nutritional value in the wood, one hand moved over to the cup of steaming tea.

"He's an older man. Grey hair, ruggedly good-looking." She waited until he began to sip before dropping the bombshell. "Likes it when I kiss him in public and call him 'daddy'." Some say that minimalist art is a deep and moving form of painting. Others could quite rightly say that what was sprayed onto the wall ten feet away would probably qualify. Burns falling on the far side of the third-degree began forming in his throat as Yusei choked and spluttered his way back to breathing normally.

* _Wheeze_ *, * _wheeeezee_ * "Your father." Discoloured dribble permanently humanised the celebrity at the table as he dabbed the corner of his mouth. "Just say so in the future." Vital work had reduced food to little more than a chore over the years but the burns on his tongue would make it even more bland for the next few days.

"Yep, daddy's taking me shopping." A silly sing-song voice lengthened the almost deadly joke a bit longer as she pulled her sweater on over her shirt. "My stuff got lost in customs so he's buying me a few things."

"And how is your father?" Hideo and Yusei were neither the closest of friends or the best of colleagues but somewhere in-between. As the Senator assigned to dealing with any Momentum projects, Hideo had been attached to the New Domino Scientific Research Centre since the very beginning. Many of his headaches sprang from the various legal problems Yusei endlessly created he had to negotiate with. One of the most irritating and ongoing was the matter of finance. The local government recognised the international importance of of the SRC as a universal home to scientists and scholars of all races, creeds and fields of study and gave the organisation certain leeways. The _national_ government insisted that the SRC give all the money it garnered from providing New Domino with power to them to more appropriately spend. As one of the few areas of government to actually turn a profit, Yusei had flatly refused for the past seven years. With the backing of the global scientific community, there was no way for the politicians to take the money without vilifying themselves. Instead of going after Yusei directly, their ceaseless bargains went straight to his political handler.

A horn honked twice down the street as Akiza finished straightening up. "Waiting." Waving one hand, she slid down the stairs and jogged across the square to where her father's car was idling on the curb up the stairs. Waving through an open window was the smiling and bearded face of her father. "Hi daddy." Sliding into the spare seat, she lent over the gear-stick to kiss her him on a furry cheek.

"Hey, sweetie." They spared a moment to share a quick embrace before several passing cars honked at them to start moving. "How was your flight?" They had spoken briefly on the phone after she had first arrived but it had been a short and slightly wandering conversation with her exhaustion.

"Too long. It would have been quicker to hop home." Easing into traffic, Hideo responded to the good-natured insults with a cheerful wave and quick beep of his own horn.

"At least it was free. First-class, snacks and all." He had been insufferable since finding out how she had paid her way home. Everybody who couldn't avoid him had heard about how Akiza had set aside her personal time to teach German to an amnesiac German patient and been given a free flight in return. "I'm just sorry that my plans pale in comparison." Tugging on his earlobe, Akiza pulled his face down until she could kiss the furry cheek.

"As long as we're together, I'll love it." Smiling, Hideo tried to push all hints of sadness from his face but seemed unable to get it all.

"I know. It's a shame that I was thinking of going to Treadwell's." Much of the rest of the journey was spent in excited shrieks of joy. The chain of shops that Misty Treadwell had opened catered almost exclusively to the rich and famous in big cities around the world. To shop in one of her locales, one had to be either extremely rich, connected or both.

Upon entering the shop, Hideo found himself chasing a whirlwind around the shop and catching every piece of clothing it threw his way. When they finally stopped before a set of mirrors, both arms were heaped with merchandise from every corner of the globe and he felt he could finally talk about the question that had been bugging him for some time without Akiza flaring up.

"So you're going to be staying with Yusei for a while then?" Smoothing down the autumnal dress she was holding against herself, Akiza swayed from side to side to get a better view in the full-length mirror.

"Just until things get back on track. Once I get a job and some money together, I'll be looking for my own place." Shifting down a size, she finally found the right blend of exposed thigh, demure neckline and tightness around her body.

"And you're just... staying there?" Out popped the reason for his evasiveness and awkward shifting all day.

"We're just friends. What happened before was a mistake." Little more than a teenage crush, she had been less than eager to talk about her failed relationship with Yusei during her studying years. She had done little to spare it more than a passing thought since leaving Japan. "Nothing is going or will be going on between us." Floating a magenta sweater between herself and the mirror, she caught a strange look on her father's face. "What's eating at you now?"

"I know that Yusei and you are just friends _now_." He didn't mean to emphasise the last word but it slipped out somehow. "But you remember," Realising where they were, he lowered his voice and stepped closer. "Remember what that friend of yours said. Museum or whatever." Despite the closeness Musume had gained to the Signers, she had never directly contacted Akiza's father and made much of a lasting impression. "If he remembers what happened last time, it will be very bad for him."

"Look," Dumping the lucky sweater into one basket, she placed one gentle hand on each of his upper arms. "Yusei and I are very different people than we were before." Sliding both hands under his arms, she wrapped them tightly about him. "Nothing is going to happen." Clashing both baskets behind her back, Hideo returned the hug.

"That's good to know." Leaning his head down, she could feel his smile against his hair. "Apparently, there's a lot of paperwork for me to fill out if Yusei gets hurt." A father's bad humour is worth a few stepped on toes, even if the shoes had pointed heels. Moment of comfort over, they parted as Akiza reached for a saggy woollen cardigan for use during relaxing evenings. "Have you had any luck?"

"About what?" Unsure over colour, she swapped out her current choice for a leafy green and crammed it in with her new dress.

"Getting your qualifications back." Throwing him several looks, Akiza dragged her father towards the section home to trousers and skirts.

"All my professors swear I was a great student who never missed a class." Flicking through labels, she tossed several pairs of denim jeans into the growing piles. "But it appears somebody wiped me from the system. No notes, no student loans, no test scores." Grabbing a few skirts, she draped them over an arm and stroked the feel of the fabrics. "I'm right back where I was eight years ago. Actually, eight years ago I had a future." Last time his daughter had been this upset, she had run away and taken up Psychic Duelling for several years. Bucking common sense, Hideo made a desperate move.

"That's one good thing – no loans." Jumping from one bad move to another, the hypothetical bus merged with a runaway locomotive and proceeded to squish the inner-politician several dozen times. Falling back into the ultimate escape route, Hideo reluctantly slide himself from between his daughter's line of sight and the shoe section. "Didn't you say that you needed a new pair of pumps?"

"Don't think you're getting off that lightly." Echoing down from Misty herself, most Treadwell stores had comfortable armchairs carefully positioned on the peripherals of their shoe sections. There, the lifters and escorts to spoiled shoppers could relax their muscles as dozens of shoes were hunted down and dropped into bags. Business was slow that day and Hideo found himself with only one companion.

"What did you do?" A balding head and sagging gut were slouched in the next seat along.

"Pardon?" Unhealthy amounts of flab presented themselves as his new friend fought the pull of gravity to sit upright again.

"Me, I got caught fooling around again." Dirty nails scraped across scratchy jowls with all the harmony of wannabe-rockstars. "Wife gets the first trip, daughters are on the next one."

"My daughter has just returned home from studying abroad." Despite the disgusting nature of his companion, Hideo forced himself to remain polite. "I thought it might be nice to treat her." A silent prayer for Akiza to finish choosing her outfit and appear. It went unanswered.

"Hey, aren't you that politics guy? Hideous Izinski?" It was a simple slip of the tongue but one that proved costly. "What'cha working on in your ivory towers?"

"I probably shouldn't be telling anybody this yet." Looking around for any eavesdroppers, Hideo leaned in uncomfortably close to the oily mess of a face. "But I can barely hold it it much longer," Another furtive glance proved that they were still alone. "Your disguise is really quite disgusting this time." A frozen look of wonder slipped away in place of a grimacing scowl.

"It was that Hideous joke. Damn thing's become second nature at the office." One of the bags proved a nice home to the removed expanse of gullet. Peeling off a few remnants of the plastic that still clung to the flesh, one hand used the now voluminous folds of shirt to wipe carefully applied oil from his face.

"How's the family?" Dragging off a wig and unclipping a painfully tight earring, the changed man set to wok on a pair of muddy contacts next.

"Starving and in desperate need of a payday from the only one well enough to work." It was a blatant lie and they both knew it. "Susan needs a new pony to play with now that poor Chester is too old for the fields." In reality, the disturbingly repulsive father was actually a well-off father of two with his youngest daughter still at home. Against all the appearances, he was actually a gentle and thoughtful soul who wouldn't say 'boo' to a goat. "How's Setsuko?"

"She sends her regards. Asks that 'that creepy Kurama' stops filling in for the flower guy in the market." Kurama and Hideo went back to the beginning of both their careers. When the young man had been nothing but the assistant assistant to the previous Senator, Kurama had approached him with an offer few would refuse – information on the current Senator's personal habits in exchange for a few quiet 'donations' to his own future campaign funds and the contacts that came with it. Hideo had refused.

Ever since then – almost thirty years by that day in Treadwell's – Kurama had made it his professional goal in life to get a story from the man. Nothing less would satisfy him. Over the years, means had varied. Fake covers, disguises and even a gaggle of interns to follow Senator Izinski wherever was legally possible and silently pester him for a quote. It was likely that some of the attempts had resulted in the premature greying of Hideo's hair but also for the laughter lines around his eyes.

"But didn't she love the offer on the rhododendron bushes?" When approaching Hideo for a professional story hadn't worked, Kurama had explained the situation to Setsuko in the vain hope that she consent to helping him write a small puff piece. Their relationship was a tad more playful than strictly necessary and Kurama had ended up as the professional version of a close cousin over the years. With both men winding down their careers, his attempts grew even more colourful and extravagant as Hideo occasionally made small talk with the peculiar reporter.

"She did go in for tulips. Two tulips." A gardening angle had allowed Kurama to get a few laughs from watching Hideo haul several bags of fertiliser and two enormous bushes to a waiting cab before settling up the money. It was worthy every penny.

"And look how happy she ended up." Cracking knuckles on the sides of his chair as he leaned in, Hideo lowered his voice to a thunderous whisper.

"I could hear you laughing all the way to the car." Against his better judgement, he had been forced to chuckle on the way home. A pulled muscle had led to some amorous activity between himself and his wife.

"Word is that your daughter is in a spot of trouble." If somebody threw a ball of paper at a police officer, Kurama would find out about it. News as big as Akiza's legal problems was – at most – a few days from being public knowledge. "I can poke around and see what I can find out."

"For a few words to the camera?" It was an old barb between them. As good friends as they might be, Kuama was always after the story. Nothing would change that.

"My own daughter is training to be a vet. It would break my heart if all her hard work went to waste." For an opportunist, Kuaram could be remarkably selfless. "All that I ask is you think about what you want to say when the time comes." Barely a nod passed before sensitive reporters ears heard the sounds of approaching footsteps and Kurama fled before Akiza could see him and get the wrong impression.

In wake of the cyber-attack against Akiza, several banks had begun investigating the validity of their accounts with her. Until something could be made of the mess, all her savings had been frozen and she was forced to rely upon the vast reserves of her father's savings to pay for extravagant shopping trips. Those accounts nearly became hers after Hideo began reading the receipt he was handed by a smiling clerk. Relocating to a fruit bar overlooking the majority of the shopping centre, he struggled to understand exactly how so few shoes could cost so much.

"I hope that guy was on commission – he can retire now." Stabbing an offensive slice of banana, he tried his best to avoid smelling the distinctive scent of a teriyaki cart on the floor directly below and focus on his diet.

"At least I have clothes again." A sharp look at his daughter helped remind him of exactly why he had lost the money for a weeks cruise in the space of a long morning. It didn't make him feel much better but it did remind him why. "Something to wear during my long unemployment."

"I thought you were planning on taking some time off anyway." Genetically predisposed towards saying the wrong thing anyway, Hideo simply ploughed on through the troubles of thinking without actually doing any thinking. "This way, you can search for a new job in your holiday." Being a dozen floors up, it was his ringing phone that prevented Hideo turning into a large mess on the ground floor far below. "Senator Izinski." Whoever was on the other end was both speaking very loud and very quickly. "Slow, slow down." A second attempt at relaying the message went about as well as the first and it took several attempts before a serious tone could convey the important information. "Take the rest of the week off." Grabbing several bags in one hand, the other patted about for some notes to throw on the table as payment for the thoroughly disgusting health smoothie Akiza had pressured him into buying. "Come on, we've got to run." Barely able to grab the last of her new possessions before her father dragged her away, Akiza found herself sprinting to keep apace with the older man.

"What's going on?" A pair of frightened pensioners dove for cover as they blew past in expensive bags and designer clothes.

"I asked my secretary to call in a few favours." In any circle of life, there existed 'the favour'. It could be as simple as borrowing a pen or as significant as saving a life. Calling in a favour could be difficult under the wrong conditions and political ones were always the wrong ones. Hideo was one of the better people in the power games and usually managed to call in favours without rubbing up anybody the wrong way. As with many things that related to his daughter, there was a lot of resistance that had been met with even greater force. "I managed to arrange another meeting with Dr Shiozaki, Minister Katō and Professor Epps will be calling in to verify that you have worked for him in the past." By this time, they were running through parked cars in an attempt to leave as quickly as possible.

"I thought that Shiozaki was booked solid for the next eight weeks?" Carelessly throwing the bags of new clothes into the back seat, Hideo threw the car into a too-fast reverse almost before Akiza had closed her door.

"That's the beauthy of the Minister of Health owing you a favour." Keeping the car in a tight curve, he drove them down the large parking garage exit ramp. "It means every doctor in the country has to do what he says." It was not a particularly pleasent thought to realise that her father was willing to pull such strings but Akiza could see his heart was in the right place so she let it slide as they drove to New Domino General for the second time that week. With any luck, events would go a lot smoother the second time around.

They didn't. With only ten minutes left until the appointment, the Izinski's were forced to abandon their car in the furthest parking bay from the main building and run the interveining distance. By the time that they arrived, Hideo was a sweaty and dishelved mess and Akiza was forced to straighten her hair using only her fingers.

"This is why Mummy and I set up that exercise regime." Instead of a flippant comment, Hideo worked on keeping his heart beating as they slowly ascended the elevator shaft. "Where are we meeting Dr Shiozaki and Minister Katō?" Their floor slowly approaching, Hideo did his best to prepare for another sprint.

"The conference room around the corner from his office." It was a power play, plain and simple. Shiozaki was intent on them walking past his office and realising that this was his turf. But the smarmy doctor was too smart for his good. By pushing them to hurry, both Akiza and her father passed the door without realising and tumbled into the conference room with scarce seconds to spare.

"Oh, you made it." Shiozaki sounded as if he had just been asked to eat a live worm on national television. Seated at one end of the table, he had several folders and documents spread about him and looked as if he had been about to leave. Sitting silently beside him was a short elderly man who could only have been Minister Katō. At the far end of the table was another chair with several folders and a pitcher of water. "Take a seat." Collapsing wearily into the chair, Akiza stared down the hateful figure at the far end of the table as Hideo seated himself in the seat beside the door. "Well then," Shiozaki opened on of the folders in front of him with a vicious smile. "Shall we get started?"


	6. Exam

It started off well enough. Dr Epps had made himself available at a moment's notice and spent several minutes recounting their long working history together in the wards of Dian Keto. The New Domino General spent several minutes letting him build the connection before pressing his attack.

"So you can verify that _Ms_ Izinski has definitely worked for you in the past?" Shiozaki was twisting the knife in her gut as he emphasised her lack of title.

"Not as such." A guilty note entered his voice as Dr Epps was morally forced to abandon his student. "I recall signing a few documents for her class but none that mention her specifically."

"Then surely you have some records that permit her access to the hospital and it's patients, medicine and equipment?" An insufferable pause came down the line in preparation of another denial. "Doctor?"

"Many of our urgent records are digitised for access from any terminal in the hospital. There was an incident with one of our cleaners a few weeks ago." At the time, Akiza had been appalled but mostly concerned for the privacy of her patients. Now that a digital killer had erased her from history, it was clear what the true objective had always been. "Some of our staff files were stolen. We located a few charred copies and we assume that they were all burnt."

"Could the motive have been to provide a cover story for somebody to claim medical training?" Long hours working alongside Akiza had given him a deep respect for the young woman but he was a professional first.

"Police ruled it an act of targetted vandalism. And I see where this line of questioning is going so let me tell you this: Dr Izinski is one of the brightest minds that I have ever encountered. She is nothing less than the greatest student I have ever had the privilege of working with." With hundreds of students passing through the wards of Dian Keto each year, it was the highest praise he could ever had given out. "If I was ever in a medical crisis, she is one of the few people on this planet I would want on my team." From the storm clouds growing on his face and the abrupt way that he cut the line, it appeared that Shiozaki had planned on events going an entirely different way than they had.

"In order to verify that you studied at Dian Keto," Unbridled anger was plain in his voice and Akiza found herself stirring the pot with a smug grin. "Minister Katō and I have selected a variety of questions from the tests you would have sat."

"Before we begin." It was the first time that the smaller man had spoken and his voice seemed husky from years of tired use. "If you need to use the toilet, we suggest you go now. This will be an oral exam only and there will not be a break." Understanding the purpose of the jug of water, Akiza adjusted her position until she was more comfortable and draw a single glass of water.

"First question:" Leaning forward in intese concentration, Akiza tried to ready herself for any of the scenarios that could have come up in any of her final exams. "Does an average child learn to sit without support at roughly seven months? And then to walk between thirteen and fifteen months?" Feeling the sweat on her brow suddenly freeze, Akiza realised exactly what they were planning. Instead of giving her a proper oral exam, Shiozaki was hoping to trip her up with an endless stream of low-level questions.

"Yes." Sitting back, she tried to swallow her bitter disappointment. It was clear that neither doctor on the other side of the bench was willing to take her claims seriously.

"A twenty-four year-old female patient comes to you for a check-up. She was diagnosed with asthma two years ago and is currently using a salbutamol inhaler 100mcg prn combined with beclometasone dipropionate inhaler 200mcg bd." Even the vowels started going over Hideo's head in some of the longer words. "Do you increase the salmeterol to 300 or 400mcg?" It was a shocking twist for Akiza to grapple with. Her previous answer had been a simple 'yes'.

"Neither. I would recommend adding salmeterol." Checking her watch, Akiza happily confirmed her slowing heartbeat as she adjusted from the simple to complex questions.

"A sixty-nine year-old man is started on tamsulosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia." It was pleasing to know his medical future was in good hands if Hideo ever developed a benign prolapstic hyperplastering. Or that other thing. "Describe two side-effects he may experience."

"Dizziness and postural hypertension." An impressed glance passed between Shiozaki and the Minister.

"Remove the first image from the red folder on the table." Sliding the fist laminated sheet out, an image of either an eyeball or some particularly conceptual painting presented itself to her.

"The picture of a papilloedema?" Another look passed between the pair.

"Senator Izinski. This will take some time. Would you mind waiting outside for the remainder of the test?" A confident wink from his daughter was all the assurance that he needed before Hideo silently left the room. Taking a deep breath, he walked down the sterile hallway to one of the many elevators. It took a moment for one to arrive and he could enter the tiny metal cubicle. What happened next was best not repeated but it involved fist-pumping, incoherent screams of victory and dance moves awkward enough to embarrass three generations of the Izinski family line. On that day, Hideo truly learnt the definition of hindsight. It was not until he turned to examine the list did he see the grieving family and groups of doctors with faces of almost total outrage.

Stopping mid-sentence, Yusei smiled politely before putting the phone to his ear. "Senator Izinski. Is there something the matter?" Smiling smugly, Hideo let his eyes roam across the hospital cafeteria as he enjoyed a cheat from his diet in the form of a thick Danish pastry.

"Nothing really. I just had a chat with Minister Katō's assistant. It seems that Akiza should be out of her test in a few minutes." Without any muscles moving, the polite grin Yusei held turned sickly as the bottom of his stomach fell out.

"What test?" Casually brushing some crumbs from his wrinkled tie, Hideo resisted the strong urge to polish his nails at the same time.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? Minister Katō owed me a few favours so I asked him to lean on Dr Shiozaki a bit." Only the collar of Yusei's shirt prevented the phone from dropping out of his suddenly numb fingers. "My little girl should be back on track before the week is out." Without even thinking about it, Yusei quietly left the scope of his camera and began sprinting down the hallway from his office.

" _Did he just...?_ " A voice speaking perfect French came from the speakers around the office as a bemused face on the wall strained to see where the speaker had just run off to.

" _You know, I think that he did._ " Amercian sounded this time as a pair of bright eyes gazed out above a chuckling smile.

" _This is unacceptable. Undercliff, Morton! I insist that you do something._ " Fluent Russian barked from the speakers as a stern face glared across the continents.

" _And what would you have us do, Minister Vasilyeva?_ " Each party inevitably spoke their own language except for when delivering scathing retorts or passing along the odd joke. As representatives of their nations, it was considered a courtesy for all parties to learn the language of whomever they spoke with. Such a council of learned scholars had come about quite accidentally when Yusei had reached out for help with a physics problem to the American, Morton, for help. Morton had then called a few of his colleagues and now they frequently conferenced to discuss matters of grave importance or just talk about their lives.

" _These conversations are of the upmost importance to the entire world. Why would Dr Fudo simply abandon them so hastily?_ " Chuckling, Morton and Undercliff shared a pointed glance. The Russian Minister for Science was more a bureaucrat – somebody to act as a figurehead of the Russian factions – than she was a proper scientist. Many scientists were quite passionate and emotional people who loved nothing more than living their lives to the fullest extent possible. A family emergency would take precedence over years of work without a second thought.

"How long has she been in there?" Ignoring the antique elevator at the end of the hallway, Yusei was leaping down entire sets of stairs as he put aside his own safety in an effort to reach his car as quickly as possible.

"Almost three hours know." Unable to hear the panic in Yusei's voice over his own pride, Hideo used a napkin to wipe any incriminating crumbs from his face. "Katō's assistant told me that she has been doing really well so far." Instead of a civil reply, he could only hear panting breaths and the throaty roar of an engine as Yusei wasted no time in setting off. Straightening his suit smugly, Hideo rose to his feet. It appeared that his plan would result in Yusei personally showing up to berate the only Dean in the world foolish enough to doubt his daughter's abilities.

Mentally exhausted, Akiza tipped the final few drops of water from her glass and collapsed backwards into her uncomfortable chair. It appeared that Shiozaki had actually diverted from script for the last half-hour in an effort to trip up the tired redhead.

"Well." Even Minister Katō would be forced to admit how impressed he was. "Your score was not perfect but certainly higher than anybody expected." From the increasingly disgruntled looks Shiozaki had shown, it was clear exactly where he fell on the spectrum of belief. "Your pass rate was in excess of," Checking hastily pencilled figures caused enough concern to raise more than two eyebrows but they were all that was on hand. "Ninety-nine percent." It was probably not the best move she could have made but not knowing would have eventually driven Akiza mad.

"What questions did I get wrong?" From the percentage, it couldn't have been more than four or five.

"Just one." Flicking back through the notes, Minister Katō eventually located the offending question. "Ah, here it is. You mistook a preganglionic fiber for a postganlionic nerve. What's so amusing?" At the mistake, Akiza had let out a burst of laughter.

"I'm sorry, it's an old joke." Back during her studies, a series of misprinted textbooks had been accidentally released by Dr Siddig. By the time they had all been rounded back up again, a few mistakes had already bleed into other works and the mixup was one she had learnt about only after her exams. There was little doubt in her mind that it would still be coming up for years to come.

"Yes, well." Clearing his throat to get back to the point, Minister Katō closed his extensive notes and turned to the thick folder that had been left to one side since her oral exam had begun. "If it were up to me, you'd be a doctor by that result alone." Even to a deaf applicant, that unspoken word hung in the air like a slap to the face. "But since we have no record of you ever receiving any medical degree, our only option is to deny your title and forbid you from practicing medicine until such a time that we prove your credentials." After three hours intensive concentration, the emotional shock was almost too much for her to handle.

"Don't forget," Against the glowing review the minister of health – his several times boss – had given Akiza, Shiozaki looked extremely pleased with himself. "We will be keeping a tab on your future positions. If any of them skirts close to even opening a packet of painkillers, you risk a lengthy jail sentence." Unable to hear him through the muffling chokehold of her agony, Akiza just nodded mutely and let her body just walk out of the large room. Her father was waiting outside, with shouts of joy sounding as he grappled her about the shoulders and pounded her on the back.

Over his muscled shoulder, she could see the vague outline of Yusei sprinting down the corridor towards her. As soon as he drew close enough to distinguish the difference between the father/daughter pair and the patients around them, he stopped dead. From the way he grew blurry, it was clear that something was wrong. In fact, everything appeared to be going blurry.

"What happened?" Hideo turned around in joyous amazement.

"She blew them all away." Brushing off the grip around her shoulders, Akiza slowly began walking away from her father and the room that had become a coffin to her career. "Hey, where are you going?"

Blocking his route to Akiza with one arm, Yusei gave a steadfast but pitying face to her father. "I think that it would be best if you gave us some space for a few days." The use of 'us' did not go unnoticed. Regardless of how Hideo had intended the day to go, it had been one shambles after another. Even without meaning to, Yusei was finding himself blaming the older man.

"I thought that... I mean." He couldn't finish the sentence and let it hang hopelessly.

"What? That they would ask a few questions and just agree that Akiza had spent eight years learning medicine?" As people started turning in his direction, Yusei realised that he had started shouting. Lowering his voice, he closed the distance between the two of them and let some of the anger he was feeling spill onto his face. "Her best only chance was to build a reasonable defence and gather what files she could. Now? That task will be delegated to a bureaucrat with twenty bigger jobs already on his desk. It will be months before any headway is made and any intervention by either of us will cast further suspicion on the case." In a single moment of clarity, Hideo realised exactly why Yusei had made such speeds to reach the hospital as quickly as he had. What had evaded him for hours had become apparent to the young scientist in seconds.

It had all been an inescapable trap. As she continued to stumble down the hallway, Akiza slowly pieced together her mistakes. Shiozaki had arranged with Katō for her to receive a lengthy test of her abilities where neither party could deny the result. Yet her lack of mistakes had been used against her. With a spotless record, she seemed to have just learnt the answers to tests from the Dian Keto college. If she had answered even a few more wrong, they might have taken her seriously. As it was, she was unlikely to ever be recognised for the last eight years of work she had put in.

In the midst of her absolute agony, she became aware of a comforting warmth spreading about her as she stopped walking. Without realising it, Yusei had directed her to where his car was illegally parked on the pavement outside the rear of the hospital. "Looks like I might be staying a while longer than we thought." It was a perfectly careless thought. She had just been permanently thrown from her chosen field of profession and had no money to leave with.

"I'm sure that I can convince Hoshi not to go for your ankles at every opportunity." Had they already joined the main roads? It seemed like mere moments ago that she had approached the car. Reality grew blurry again and she suddenly felt that same warm feeling that had given her the strength to make it to the car. As her vision cleared, she came to realise that Yusei had wrapped an arm around her and pulled her tight to his chest. It was very warm that and she could hear his heartbeat through the fabric of his shirt and jacket. Somehow, even though it was barely the beginning of the evening, she found her unstoppable tears eventually carried her off to sleep. Her last memory of that dreadful day was of him stroking her shoulder and murmuring quiet assurances that it would all be better in the morning.

Dawn was just starting to think about showing up when the shrill beeping of her phone woke the emotionally ruined doctor from her slumber. Fumbling one hand about, the luminous face of a clock showed the time as a little before three in the morning. Picking up her phone, Akiza made the depressed mistake of not checking who was calling before she answered. If she had seen the word 'Restricted' on her display, she would have woken Yusei up first."Hello?"

"Dr Izinski?" Unable to stop herself, a few sad yet angry giggles escaped before she could stop them.

"Apparently not any more. In case you haven't heard, I'm not allowed to practice medicine in Japan right now." She wasn't about to get into the details with somebody she didn't know. "What is this about?"

"I'm calling on behalf of Dr Ogino." Checking the time again, Akiza wondered exactly why this call couldn't have waited until after the sun had risen. "Are you still interested in full-time employment?" After missing out on her dream job just two days before, another opening so suddenly was near miraculous. If she hadn't heard of Ogino – though she couldn't currently recall exactly where at the moment – the offer would have been even more suspicious.

"Hold on," Sitting upright in her bed, Akiza turned on the soft lamp beside her bed. "Who are you and how did you get my number?" If it had not been for the extremely early hour, these questions might have occurred sooner.

"Word has spread of the incident at hospital yesterday. Friend of a friend gave me your information, I'm sure you understand." Deftly slipping by the question of identity, the voice at the other end of the phone at least went on to answer her first question. "As the situation stands, you are in an interesting position. Between your extensive medical training but current legal standing, various other organisations will doubtless be attempting to curry favour in the next few months. Honestly, this is something of a pre-emptive strike." So her caller was simply trying to get a bid in on her skills first. It wasn't unheard off for skilled practitioners but Akiza had barely been a real doctor for a few months. There had to be something more going on.

"What exactly is this job?" At the worst, she ended up wasting a few hours in pointless meetings and possibly upset a few scheming businessmen. If events panned out, a new source of income would not go amiss. Student debts had a habit of sticking around even when their owner was lacking the money to deal with them.

"Standard nursing duties for the moment. Blood tests, bandages and the like – all legal and above board. More responsibility may be given once proof of your degree is discovered. Do you have something to write with?" Grabbing a spare pen and notepad from her purse, Akiza scribbled down a lengthy series of directions and addresses. It had been a few years but it appeared to be in an upscale area of the city. "If you drop by this afternoon, Dr Ogino would be happy to talk some more with you." Beside a rude awakening, her caller was also brusque enough to hang up before she could ask any more questions. Even though a tingle of suspicion warned her of the long odds, something about the heartfelt belief her degree was not fabricated had endeared the caller to Akiza.

Then, fully utilising her vast knowledge of human biology to determine that sleep was not only an essential process in general but much needed at that time, Akiza simply rolled over and fell back into her dark slumber once more. If the night had been a bit more noisy, maybe she would have heard it – her world falling quiet as a turning point in history was settled on and the future changed course.

 **July 3** **rd** **– Six months until Yusei Fudo dies.**


	7. Tests

When she properly woke up, there was no sign of Yusei and Akiza had enough caffeine withdrawal to send a roomful of addicts to the nearest vending machine. Extensive travel had a way of messing with her body clock by just an hour or two. It was irritating but nothing that couldn't be fixed with regular high doses of caffeine. As well as being the perfect shoulder to cry herself to sleep on, Yusei also held the forethought to leave a mug ready on the side. Beside some curious sniffing from the tiny cat that roamed the house, it was exactly as he had left it. It had also been several hours since he left it and the persistent ticking of a clock on the shelf quietly reminded her of the soft-appointment she had coming that afternoon. After-noon being right-now. It was nearing one in the afternoon and she was still dressed only in what she had worn to bed the night before. Constant nightmares and waking up could do that to a person.

Not eager to lose possibly her only chance at getting a foot in the door in the world of medicine, she set the kettle to boil and lunged for the nearest shower. Only two issues arose in her plan: Hoshi decided that damp ankles made the best of toys until she bore the full power of the showerhead. Problem two was less easily dealt with. By the time she had managed to wrap herself in a fresh towel, the shrill ringing of her mobile had been sounding for more than a few seconds.

"Hello?"

"Dr Izinski?" Clipped tones hushed politely down the line.

"Not a doctor but yes."

"Your car is waiting outside." Peering through the glass in the living room, she could just about make out a faded grey convertible. It was a drab car, not one suited to the bustle of politicians and currying favour but one for the humdrum transport of a person from one place to another.

"Can you give me a few minutes to ge- _finish_ getting ready?" A hand waved from out of one window. Taking the motion as acceptance, she sprinted back into her room and pulled out the only remaining professional outfit she had. A black silk shirt with matching stockings and an ankle-length skirt. Her shoes, though a shade of clashing red, were the only appropriate form of footwear to any sort of interview and she hoped they would be dismissed as a favourite good-luck charm. Shaking what moisture she could from her hair, Akiza ran a thick comb through the tangled mess left behind and hobbled down the stairs as quickly as she could with one hand trying to cram her shoes on.

Anxious not to make herself any later, she performed the mundane and possibly impolite action of letting herself into the car. In a way, the car was a disappointment. It lacked any sort of fawning attempt to win her over. From another angle, she found it quiet appealing. Ogino – the ever-so familiar but still unknown Ogino – obviously didn't want to try and win her over with flashy shows of expensive gifts.

"Shall we go?" She had been so caught up with examining the bleak interior that she hadn't put any thought to the driver sitting beside her. The dress sense of the woman sitting in the driving seat was almost the exact same fabric as the seats they were sitting on and drab brown hair was swept back in a tidy bun.

"Yes, it's." She reached for the list of instructions in the small purse over one shoulder but

"I know where we're going." It appeared that Ogino still believed in redundancy. Still believed? Caught off-guard but the slight release of information from her memory, Akiza almost missed the car joining the main roadways. "I'm Tabitha."

"Akiza Izinski." She moved to shake a hand but both palms remained rigorously attached to the steering wheel in the legally advised position. "But I'm guessing you knew that." Looking around at the drab interior again, she tried to surreptitiously wring more water from her hair.

"There's a hair dryer in the glove box." Little went by the driver as one eye remained firmly fixed on the road ahead. "It's under the user manual." A slight kick of speed stalled the search as Tabitha sped up slightly to get past a sign without Akiza noticing it whilst looking for the compact dryer.

"Nice car." A look of dry amusement filtered between the drying strands of hair.

"Don't be fooled, it gets the job done. Nobody tends to look twice at a breaking down piece of junk." Notes of biter memories hung in her words. "My other body is a total dreams. Growls like a tiger, runs like a dream and steers like a gazelle." Uncertain how to respond to such animalistic imagery, Akiza fell silent as she concentrated on drying her hair.

Before Akiza knew it, they were pulling to a halt in one of the more up-scale parts of the city with soaring buildings all around. Judging mainly from the steam starting to rise from beneath the bonnet, it appeared that something had gone wrong with the engine beneath. "It looks like you will have to walk some of the way." Leaning over, she pushed up Akiza's door and pointed to the buildings beside the road. "Go between those two, turn left, right and it's the second main entrance on your right. You might want to run, you're an hour late as it is." Mumbling some quick thanks Akiza hurried down the indicated paths.

Several minutes of quick running later, she fairly stumbled to a halt outside the imposing building. It had been concealed from her drop-off but it was as big as the KaibaCorp Stadium, if not bigger and stood almost twenty stories high. From what she could see, it was a single structure purpose build to house any number of rooms inside. Whatever it was, heavy security was evident. Only a few moments after she arrived, a thickly-padded guard stepped through the main doors and took up stance outside. Staring down the dangerous glare, Akiza met it with cool detachment. Her illusion of control was only marred by the slight sweat she had built up on the run over. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long.

"Here to see Dr Ogino?" A stumpy lady with almost black eyes came puffing up to her with flush spreading along her cheeks.

"You may want to catch your breath a bit first." Stoically waving aside the concern for her health, the diminutive woman began rifling through her pockets for something.

"It's fine." Digging a laminated card from the innards of her lab coat, she threw it about her next. "I'm a doctor." Flashing a smile, she took several deep breaths until the edge had gone from her wheezing. "Something we have in common." As the plastic rectangle spun to a halt, Akiza finally read the name printed beside the picture.

"Dr K Ogino? As in _Keiko_ Ogino?" Straightening up as best she could with the painful stitched running down the centre of her chest, Ogino tried to project an air of authority and respect. "Former _Minister of Health_ Keiko Ogino?" It all came back to her in a rush.

Her father had mentioned to Akiza that Minister Katō owed him a favour for helping to smooth the transition because Hideo Izinski had dealt with Ogino enough to know how not to set her off. Former Minister Ogino had earned herself a reputation for being prickly and talking her mind. It had not been bad enough to be any reason for dismissal but her prickly personality had not done her any favours in making friends. But that irate politicians was a far cry from the almost happy person before her.

"That was a long time ago." Enough strands of white and grey hair indicated that many things were a long time ago for the ageing doctor. "I never did have the temperament for politics. Too many snide comments and corner-cutting deals." If spitting in memory of past battles was still socially accepted, she would have gobbed all over the sidewalk. "Anyway, I'm sorry if you've been waiting long. There was a meeting I couldn't avoid. Seeing as you're I take it you're interested in the job." Although it had sounded a tad more basic than most of her research, any medical ground would have been welcome right then. "Come with me, there's something I need to show you first. Oh," Rifling through her pockets, Ogino withdrew a crumpled piece of paper. "First, you need to sign this non-disclosure. Just a gag order for anything you see today."

"Sounds easy enough." Scribbling her signature with the proffered pen, Akiza suddenly felt slightly unsure of her decision as an explosion sounded in the distance. "What was that?"

Peering in the direction of the sound, Ogino gave a calculated shrug. "Probably another fuel miscalculation. We usually get two or three a month in the propulsion labs. This way." Ignoring the first wisps of grey smoke, she lead Akiza into the squat grey building, pressing the card around her neck to a pad beside the door as she went. Stencilled into the walls inside were several frightening words 'Biological Pathogen Testing'.

"What are they working on here?" Scorch marks were still here and there along the wall – with some even framed and noted – as dozens of people in lab coats flocked through the hallway.

"Everything from space-borne viruses to the common cold." Green muck began bubbling up against a window as they walked past. "Nothing to worry about just yet." Pressing her card to the panel beside the lift, Ogino summoned a cubicle. "If you chose to work her, you'll be starting off with basic medical duties. Changing bandages, treating minor abrasions." Stepping into the newly arrived elevator, she hit the button for one of the higher floors. "But you'll need to know about the big stuff ahead of time." It was worrying to consider what 'big stuff' could mean after a rocket explosion outside had been treated as utterly normal. Fortunately – or unfortunately – Akiza didn't have to consider for long.

Moments later, the lift doors opened onto a hallway basked in red lights and a softly blaring klaxon. Thick transparent panels had been erected to make a sort of inner corridor to the main one. "Is it safe to be in here?" Not answering the question, Ogino simply walked down the hallway and left the decision to follow solely up to her.

"Safety is relative." Following the path of the thick shield, they took a winding route a short way deeper into the building. "You can go decades without going on an aeroplane but nothing will stop one dropping out of the sky and killing you anyway." Finally reaching the end of the inner-corridor, she pulled to a halt outside a lab where people were shambling about inside. They all appeared to be on the brink of collapse and one was already slumped over a table. "That's the sort of problem this lot are facing."

"Is this one of those psychological tests? Trolley and the victims sort of deal?" Such tests were so prevalent in the business world that some psychologists were starting to grow concerned that they were actually creating enough stress to skew the results by simply expecting the examination to go poorly.

"Not this time. There was a containment breach three days ago. Somebody dropped the wrong vial and unleashed a swarm of flesh-eating bacteria." As Ogino said the words, the room on the other side of the glass shifted slightly. Adjusting her eyes to the tinted light, Akiza suddenly saw through the thick mask of the sleeping scientist to the skeleton within. What she assumed had been baggy clothing was actually just draped loose on the gaunt frames inside. As the figures continued to stumble about, it was clear that all had given up hope and were simply going through the motions of finding a cure. "If you do choose to work here, you have to understand that you can't save everyone. Those people in there can't even have a decent burial. This entire building is going to be cleaned down to the smallest cell and then burnt to the ground." Wrenching her eyes from the pitying display of death and hubris inside the room, Akiza saw Ogino had an unshed tear in each eye. "If you chose to work here, you can move on to almost any job you chose within a few months. But you have to accept that you can't save everyone. There might come a time when you can only stand and watch." Feeling a surge of compassion, Akiza hugged the sturdy woman standing beside her.

"I don't think that I will ever accept that. I plan on saving everybody who needs help." A stiffening of the shoulders announced that Ogino was done with their physical contact and they both stepped back.

"Okay then." Rapping her knuckles on the glass, she made the shambling figures inside suddenly jump in a flapping display of loose plastic. "Shows over guys, get back to work." The muted alarm cut out completely and white light returned to the lab inside. "And somebody stick Fred back in the closet." A sweaty bundle of hair dragged the cover from the skeleton. Squeaks of horror actually squeezed from Akiza as the skull rolled across the floor. It was that tiny movement that finally hit the truth home – when she saw that the jaw was wired to the cranium.

"So it _was_ a test then." Icicles dripped from her every word. Escaped polar bears would have frozen to death in the chill tone.

"Not exactly." Steering the conversation and her guest back to the secured lift, Ogino waved her badge past the scanner. "What I told you was based on fact. Another facility _did_ suffer a containment breach some years ago. Most of the details have been classified and the experiment was almost entirely redacted." Stepping in, she waited for Akiza to join her and the doors to close before continuing. "Three men were exposed to an unknown element. Something about their exposure artificially accelerated their ageing process. When they realised what had happened, they sealed themselves in a lab in hopes of a cure." Looking Akiza dead in the eye, she delivered the final fact that had become the basis for the earlier fiction. "They didn't find one in time. When the lab was finally opened, it almost destroyed a small town nearby. Luckily, a cure was developed but what remained of their work was lost." Without either of them touching a button, the cubicle began moving. "That's why we put on these performances. If you want a job at saving people, leave now. If you want a job saving lives, stay a little longer." A slight shudder stopped Akiza before she could answer, the brakes slowing the lift at the lowest floor.

As the lift stopped, a shabbily dressed man lurched in from the dimly lit hallway beyond. He had the sort of look that thousands of office workers the world over wore – failed smart-casual. In this case, he had trousers that looked several years out of date, a belt faded and scratched so many times that it was held together with sheer willpower and a shirt that had been ironed and tucked precisely but crumpled at the first sign of any movement. Hung loosely over his right arm was a dusty labcoat that sported one too many stitches to be called intact and a sleeve too few to be called practical.

"Dr Ogino, I... Oh." A polite English tone wove through his words as he made to step out of the elevator. Seeing Akiza, he paused in the pre-movement. "Giving the grand tour, I see." Suddenly bashful, he avoided making direct eye-contact with either of them. "It is nothing that cannot wait." Tapping the close button, he tried his best to leave as quickly as possible.

"Hold on, we'll ride with you." Following her new boss into a corner of the steel box, Akiza did her best to ignore the tingling feelings coming from her intuition. Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't hear Ogino talking to her as the shaking figure took up stance right beside the buttons and the lift doors. "If you're willing to start tomorrow, we can get you through training and orientation by the weekend and have you on payroll from next week." Something was off about the wrinkled shirt in front of her. It was damp and dirty but not as if he had been sweating. It looked as if it had been coated in dust and then instantly soaked with warm water. Before touching the button, the hidden right hand had twitched slightly as if it was the dominant hand and one leg was taking most of the weight.

"Excuse me," Quite possibly cutting off her career once more, she tapped the shoulder just before her. "What happened to your shirt?" Muscles stiffened where they shouldn't have as the stark white face peeked out the corner of its vision.

"A pipe burst during maintenance. It should not take too long to fix." Each word was carefully precise and polite but sounded unnaturally hurried as they came.

"What's that noise?" Ogino had also noticed something wrong, casting panicked eyes to the ceiling. It appeared the retired doctor disliked small spaces filled with the noise of dripping liquids.

"I believe it is me." Resting his right shoulder on the cold metal, a look of extreme fatigue dragged claws across the British face. "Pay it no mind."

"What's wrong with your leg?" Akiza had finally put all the pieces together. Why the jacket had carefully concealed much of his legs and not moved, his reluctance to talk and that hurried demeanour. Why he was leaning so heavily against the wall and looking whiter than freshly blown snow.

"Nothing important. I will... rest and you can... continue with your... tour." Increasingly large gaps appeared in his sentence before the Englishman started slowly pitching backwards. By the time Akiza managed to properly react, he had gained enough velocity to slip through her grip and bang his head on the handrail before landing on the floor. Momentarily unnoticed was the jacket. As its owner had fallen, so had the coat revealed the grimy metal shard embedded deeply in the right leg.

"Hey, can you hear me?" As Akiza tried to keep their patient awake, Ogino smashed in the fragile window guarding a medical box. "What is this, another test?" Cutting open around the wound, the doctor exposed a makeshift bandage of tissue and tie that had been a feeble attempt to keep the wound intact.

"Not this time." Sensing the look of suspicion, she spared a precious moment to return the gaze. "All I do is fake a containment breach and ask people if they can take losing a few patients. Stabbing people is – surprisingly – beyond my authority." Thankfully, a few hearty taps to the face were enough to rouse the man once more.

"No, you have to continue the tour." Shock had clearly set in and denied the man the ability to recognise how badly he had been wounded. "Do not waste your time on me."

Forcing him back down with one hand, Akiza tried her best to keep a calm and level voice. "There's a piece of metal in your leg. Moving it could puncture an artery so you need to stay still." Usually patients started tearing up at the point but the confused blue eyes just stared up at her from over a short-trimmed beard. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"There was a pressure build-up in a pipe." Pained hisses interrupted as Ogino applied strong antiseptics to the cut. "I had to check the interface to identify the reason. It spiked," A flicker of a smile passed across his face at the unintentional pun. At least, she hoped it was unintentional. "And then exploded. I tried to stabilise the wound as best I could but I am not a doctor." Speaking urgently into her earpiece, it appeared that Ogino was giving directions to an emergency medical team to meet them on the ground floor.

"Why did you come looking for Dr Ogino? Why not simply call a medic to where you were?" Curls bopped to and fro as he shook his head.

"I did not have any comms with me. The readout showed me that Ogino had just entered this building and I was already near the basement." Blood loss was making it harder for him to stay awake yet he was forcing his dimming mind to construct clear sentences. "It was the quickest way to get help." Then his eyes fluttered shut. When they finally reached the ground floor thirty seconds later, a fully staffed medical team were waiting with a gurney and ears eager to absorb any information they could about the new patient. Barely four minutes after encountering the man in the lift, Akiza watched as he was wheeled away in a flurry of shouting medics and beeping equipment.

"You kept a tight head in there." Even with blood coating her hands and most of the notes she had taken that day now useless, Ogino seemed to be in a good mood. "Kept him calm, explained what was happening." She sniffed and wipe her hands dry on the least bloody portion of her jacket. "Shame about dropping him. You'll have to watch out for that." Looking up and down the formerly pristine outfit Akiza wore, Ogino made a snap decision. Unlike the sturdy scrubs she was walking around in, the expensive jacket and dress were not designed to wash blood stains from easily. "Here," Draping the moderately less bloody lab coat about the taller lady, she dragged Akiza down the maze of corridors.

Again, the walls had only a few framed scorch marks and small clusters of scientists were scurrying around with clipboards and datapads. Only a few of the quicker eyes managed to catch the bloodstains but habitually dismissed them out of turn. A few broken bones and ruptured spleens were the day-to-day in advancing science. There was no cause for even the briefest concern with the chief medical officer steering Akiza by one befuddled shoulder. "Dr Ogino." A bubbly little bundle of energy blurred to their side. "Oh no, what happened?" Another bout of familiarity washed over her as Akiza struggled to place the young lady hurrying to keep pace with them on the other side of Ogino.

"Some idiot caught pipe-shrapnel in his leg. Akiza helped me to stabilise him until the medics could arrive." Utter adoration seemed to flow cloyingly from behind the glasses of the young woman. "Can you get her some clothes whilst I fill out some paperwork? It shouldn't take too long." Beginnings of a question were cut short as Ogino leapt on ahead without pause. An unspoken look passed between the pair as Ogino stepped back into the foyer area with a phone appearing in one hand.

"Come on." Dragging her by one hand, the bubbly bundle of energy dragged her down the corridor to a small locker-room. "Here," Bumping the mechanism of a hatch midway down the first row, she grabbed a set of folded scrubs from inside. "It's not much but they should fit." Reaching further in, she pulled out a set of wet wipes for Akiza to clean her hands with and a large paper bag for her bloodied clothes.

"Thank you." Still reeling over the display of efficiency, Akiza struggled to place the young woman. "I'm sorry, have we met? I feel like I know you from somewhere." Politely turning her back, the young woman gave her some privacy as Akiza began changing clothes.

"It was a few years ago. To be honest, I didn't expect you to remember me at all. The sky was falling down after all." Akiza paused in the act of pulling her top over her head. "You even visited me in hosptial after.

"Haruka?" With a squeal, the two ladies gave a tight embrace that nine-tenths of men would pay to see. "What are you doing here?"

"I got onto a medical scholarship program." Tugging down the crumpled fabric down her midriff, Akiza examined the young girl standing before her. It had been some years since the two had been face-to-face so only a few traces remained from the old days. A certain wide-eyed amazement at everything, glasses slightly too large to be practical but held in place with a piece of worn elastic. "Ogino helped set up a bunch of them when she first got here. She let me start by observing how she went about her day before letting me start helping with the paperwork. Then there was an accident inone of the labs and I had to fetchall the bandages and antisepticscreams sothat nobodywouldbeseriouslyhurtinthelongterm." Before the syllables could be crushed from the sentences altogether, Akiza managed to place a calming hand on each shoulder and use that powerful smile she had learnt from Yusei.

"Haruka, when I get this job, we can spend days talking about everything." Another tight hug emphasised that _literal_ days might be spent talking. "Can you tell me some more about it? All I know so far is that I'll be doing standard nurse duties."

"Don't be silly." Excited giggles burst from her mouth in a wave of amusement.

"Well, then what?" Looking up in the middle of folding her skirt into a paper bag let her see the suddenly nervous look on Haruka's face.

"Dr Ogino can tell you the rest. She's in charge after all." For somebody who had just been unable to squeeze any more words in her sentences, Haruka was suddenly being incredibly evasive. "Oh but she asked me to sponsor you! That's kind of fun." A look of nervous indecision crossed her face.

"Sponsor for what?" Tugging the scrubs into place, Akiza was pleased by how comfortable they were. It was unusual to feel this happy with work clothes but they had all the emotional weight of a cosy jumper.

"The job." Eager to move events ahead, Haruka practically skipped back out the door. "Dr Ogino couldn't do it because that would be really in appropriate so I said I really wanted to and she let me before," Clamping a controlling hand on one shoulder Ogino managed to stop the spilling of any crucial information.

"A couple of guys in Resources owed me favours." Steely glints in her eyes indicated that those favours might have been only minutes old at time of asking. "If you want the job, it's yours. No muss, no fuss, no distractions." A look passed between the two employees in the hallway and the potential employee would have been blind to miss it.

"Firstly," Folding her coat over crossed arms, she made a point of facing the bloodstains towards Ogino. "Tell me what's really going on. Nobody gets a job this quick without ulterior motives." Ogino swallowed as Haruka squeaked enough morse code to break their cover ten times over.

"Under normal circumstances, I would play dumb but we don't have time." Dropping her phone into one pocket, she pulled out a datapad instead. "You're a good doctor Izinski. Epps said you were possibly the best student he has ever met and nobody who knew you at university could say a bad word. Well, except one guy but he was a weasel." From the way she spoke, Akiza could guess who the weasel was. "Whatever happened to your records, I know you're a great doctor. If you sign, here and now," Turning on the screen, she scrolled to the bottom of the page. Datapads could technically accept input but writing in the air was uncomfortable for many people. "You get a good job, with good people that you can back out of any any time. If you wait longer than," Tipping her watch, she checked the seconds ticking away. "Two minutes, somebody is going to get here who can make it all go away."

Turning to Haruka, Akiza simply stared. Ogino was a seasoned veteran when it came to the intricate mazes of politics and deceit. By contrast, Haruka poured out her heart and soul to everyone who cross her path. It took only a few seconds before the tears started welling up and she began nodding to confirm everything as true.

"Why me?" Facing Ogino once more, she tried to figure out the most pressing question. "Why not another doctor – one already allowed to practice medicine?" Shuffling her feet slightly, Ogino continued to hold out the datapad between them.

"I wanted somebody unafraid of authority. An unknown factor but a damn reliable one. You fit the bill." It wasn't the truth, not the whole truth. There was something else, something missing. But there was only a few seconds left until it was all snatched away again. If it had to go again, it would be Akiza's choice. Raising a finger, she scribbled a light copy of her signature into the document moments before it was hastily shoved back into an inside pocket.

" **Ogino!** "

With those rushes of insight that come right before (or after) a catastrophic mistake, Akiza managed to put all the pieces together. Why the paperwork had gone through so quickly, Haruka's sponsorship and their shared reluctance to give a solid explanation of what the job would entail. It also explained why Yusei was standing in the outside doorway with a face as close to fury as he could get.

"Akiza." It was maybe the greatest example of abbreviation-isms ever. In that one word, it contained several questions. Questions like 'What are you doing here?',

'Why are you wearing those scrubs?',

'Is that blood on your coat?',

'Why is there blood on your coat?',

'Did you forget about the jail-time for practising medicine in Japan?' and the inevitable,

'Can we pretend that I don't know you for what I have to do?'

All these and more went in to the "Ogino" he directed at the dumpy woman who suddenly looked like a cornered elephant. "I just received a very interesting message from human resources." Held out in one hand was the pale blue screen of a datapad. "They wanted to know who they were meant to put down as the emergency contact for Akiza here." Sensing a spectacle in the offing, scientists in the hallway casually began drifting over to do what scientists do best – observe every tiny detail. "They thought it might have been me and were concerned about a conflict of interests. As I told them, I was _very interested_ to hear about Akiza applying for a job." Taking the screen, Ogino tried to put on a face of open and honest ignorance. Sadly, doctors aren't trained in secretive faces, only reassuring ones.

"Well, there must be some mistake." Under the guise of scrolling through the screen, she 'accidentally' filled in several more boxes. "Ah, here it is." Holding up the screen, she dropped 'open and honest' for 'deceitful smile'. "See? I just put Haruka's name in the wrong box." A flicker of irritation actually twitched one cheek at the impetuous comment. At that point, the observing scientists did what they always do – call in more scientists for outside opinions.

"I think there has been some miscommunication." Lowering his voice, he tried to maintain a professional outward appearance. "Akiza isn't here to apply for a job. Come to that, she isn't allowed to practice medicine in Japan right now." Whilst she had not forgotten the events of the day before, they had been far from Akiza's mind during the frantic rush to stabilise the dying patient in the elevator. Somehow, she doubted the government would be understanding.

"In case you forgot," Thrusting up the datapad to his face, Ogino marshalled all her limited height to meet him. "You told me to hurry and find Richardson's replacement. In your own words," She tapped the screen and held it close enough to squish his nose slightly as several words highlighted themselves. " _'Make sure they're good enough to deal with all the crazy and brilliant enough to keep ahead of these idiots'_." With the ball – and blame – now fully in his court, Yusei went cross-eyed trying to read the tiny print in front of his eyes.

"See, when I said _'idiots'_ " Closing one eye to better read the email, "I meant _'highly valued and respected'_ members of staff." Surly grunts and angry murmurs sounded around as they all planned various methods of revenge. "Beside, I suggested promoting one of your _other_ doctors to the post. Haruka has shown herself to be," A single look at the utterly unserious nurse cast aside professionalisms. "Fully competent." A few first stragglers started drifting from the crowd as the tension levels slowly began dropping back down. It was clear that any potential drama seemed doomed to fizzle out.

"I'm still working on my degree." Maintaining her status as quiet voice of reason, Haruka was just as quietly ignored by the three louder voices of pride, stubborn pride and overwhelming smugness. It wasn't clear which was which most of the time.

"Akiza has enough experience." Finally lowering the tablet, Ogino glared with granite eyes at her boss.

"Akiza isn't cleared to practice medicine in Japan." Out came the counter with plenty of guilt and shame yet forced by iron-cold logic through clenched teeth.

"Akiza technically only needs to be first-aid trained. Everything else is optional." Haruka wisely decided to stop helping as Yusei turned his overly-patient stare on her. "And the SRC provides first-aid training to any potential or successful applicant."

"Is Akiza allowed a vote?" Such onlookers as had begun filtering away found themselves dragged back by what in science is known as 'potential imminent social micro-revolution'. It was from the sort of science that gave the rest a bad name. Not geology, the other one. 'Social sciences'. Unfortunate origins aside, it was this psychological phenomenon that drew most of the lower floors into the tiny hallway.

Holding out an imperious hand, Yusei waited patiently until Ogino lowered the datapad into his scarred and worn palm. "Standard non-disclosure?" A curt nod came from his chief medical officer. "Richardson's posting?" Another nod. "Full benefits package?" Confused now but another nod came from Ogino. Those that knew Yusei longest – and Akiza had known him for many years now – would recognise that hidden twinkle of an inward laugh gleaming in one eye. Turning to her with that 'gotcha' expression that so readily adorned police officers around the world, he scrolled to the picture of her signature, freshly inscribed on the digital document. "Your signature?" Throwing across the tablet, Akiza admired her own penship for a moment. "Your vote." Leaning over the top, he scrolled far enough to let her fill in the gaps. "Your contract."

A long silence reigned. Eyes flickered from the contract to Ogino glaring at Yusei, Yusei glaring at Ogino and Akiza roving her eyes between both scientists and her unforeseen contract. "Exactly what job did you just give me?" Two quiet chuckles came from the back of the crowd. It appeared that at least one person was enjoying the spectacle.

"Not one that she was qualified to give." Only Akiza could see the laughters in his eyes but it was in stark contrast to the cold game face he put on.

"Actually," Stretching up to Yusei's height wasn't much of an option. Instead, the diminutive woman did what stocky people the world over do to intimidate – she stepped uncomfortably close. "Any and all medical and medical personal decisions have to be made – or passed – by the chief medical officer. And anything you don't like about it," She placed a single digit carefully in the centre of his chest. "Has to be reported to human resources." Leaning more weight than was necessary on the finger, she lent some more to her next point. "There are about fifty forms you can start filling out. On paper." In the age of digital progression, in possibly the most advanced institution on the planet, such an idea was nearing blasphemy and gasps actually sounded.

Squatting just enough to make a slight mockery of her closeness, Yusei pressed his face close enough to count the blackheads around her nose. "How does deputy medical director strike you?" Ruffles of hair were delicately ignored by Ogino as he turned his head. "Akiza?" All eyes turned to the fuming woman as Ogino leant back to watch. After struggling between her emotional desire to smack the humorous gleam from his eye and the proud instinct to simply walk away, she gave a single nod. "Dr Izinski, welcome to the New Domino Scientific Research Centre. Try and wear sensible shoes from now on." Before anybody could refocus, Yusei pecked Ogino familiarly on the cheek and melted into the crowd.

In the stunned silence that followed, another short bout of chuckles sounded from the end of the hallway.


	8. Navigation

Dressed in eggshell blue scrubs, running shoes and hair tied up in a neat bun, Akiza was every bit the medical expert. Walking the wrong way for the third time in five minutes, she was also hopelessly lost. What Akiza had originally believed to be a single gargantuan building was actually a series of tightly packed structures each barely a few metres from one another. Every level of every building was packed with laboratories and each hallway was impossible to navigate without at least half a dozen different scientists knocking into one another. And that wasn't even the first problem.

"This place is a maze." Haruka had been assigned the arduous task of teaching Akiza exactly how to best negotiate the complex hallways of the SRC. She had been at it for five hours and still had little to show for her efforts. As far as she could tell, entire sections of research were loosely grouped into bubbles of rooms across different levels. Geology was spread over five floors in the north corner of one building but had apparently made headway across the avenue into the next structure, astronomy occupied several rooftops and there was evidence of an ongoing feud with the climatologists who shared neighbouring roofs. Mechanics had simply set up camp in the garage one day and never left and it was only the steady placement of the first aid and medical stations that gave any sort of landmark in the chaos. "How on Earth do you find your way around?" Even with a week of slow learning, she was struggling to limit her sarcastic and rhetorical questions. Before the words had died away, a geologist, psychologist and even astronomer began converging from different directions.

Shooing them all away, Haruka tried her best not to let pity creep into her smile. "Everybody takes a while to learn where everything is." Despite being offered every technological item under the sun, Akiza had refused to learn with the aid of any gadget. As a doctor, she preferred to expand and rely upon her own skills.

"Primate Studies, Primate Studies." On only her second day, Akiza had stepped from a lift and almost knocked down a screaming chimp. When a lab assistant had come running, it was only to interpret the hand gestures as 'stupid, blind, woman' over and over. Needless to say, it was not an experience she was looking to reliving. "That's in Section... Three?" From what she remembered, that was mostly in the north-east building and somewhere on either the fourth or fifth floors. "Section Three is Primate Studies and..." Most sections were either dual-facilities or quite broad in their research aims. It made trying to remember what doctor and what lab went where increasingly difficult.

"Records. All old files and shelved projects." Skilled gamers learnt to read the tiniest movements in an opponent. It could have been a twitch of the eye or a tiny increase in the pulse. It was actually harder to _not_ read Haruka with her heart worn on both sleeves.

"Anything else?" Whimpering slightly, Haruka fought to keep the secret inside.

"Yusei's office." There was a momentary pause as Akiza carefully slipped into her 'terminal diagnosis' face. It was the face of professional blandness that she used when delivering the bad news. Empathy with a touch of 'shoulder to cry on'.

"I see." Even the words were extremely delicate. Since her impromptu hiring and instatement just two steps below him, Yusei had almost literally ghosted her. His bed hadn't been slept in, nobody around the Scientific Research Centre could confirm seeing him and the only things that stopped her from calling Trudge was the knowledge that Yusei wasn't the type of person to run out on all his hard work over a tiny squabble and the tidy bowls of food left for Hoshi each day. Haruka recognised the signs and jumped right into the next unfortunate entry on her tour guide: local history.

"The SRC officially began operations eight years ago when Yusei and Dr Zigzix created the Fortune Network. With a small team of scientists, they sold several patents and used the money to drastically expand their operations. After a few months, they had enough to buy the entire estate and 'remodel'." It sounded like a direct quote from a history book – quotes and all. When the bank accounts hit a high-point, Yusei had given the order to literally flatten the old buildings that had been designed mostly for clerical work. Haruka showed her the photo of Yusei at the decisive moment. Acting on childish desire, he had taken the extra time needed to wire in an antique detonator. In the huddles of the crowd far behind him, it was almost possible to see the remorse in several suited faces. It was definitely possible to see the anger and rage. "After the deconstruction was complete, the new SRC began being built. To act as a buffer in case of emergency, Yusei helped design twelve buildings around the perimeter for the SRC to use whilst the main site was constructed. After that, they were given extra security and assigned to Section Three. Yusei and a few others kept their offices for a while but everyone else has moved to the main buildings soon after."

For a moment, Akiza could see exactly how events would have unfolded. Yusei would gather a small clutch of people to help him build a place where scientists could come together and extend the boundaries of human knowledge. After some time went by and their vision came to pass, the others would slowly leave to live in their paradise. But Yusei would remain on the outside, constantly fighting to make it a better place with minimal help from the people he sheltered.

"How often does Yusei come to the SRC?" Haruka could only shrug. Visits from the director were sporadic at best. Sometimes he would come several times a day and, other times, weeks could go past. Regardless of how often he came to visit, his door was constantly open and the calming voice of reason was always just a call away. Even though he was infrequently seen, there was a comforting presence across the entire grounds when he was there.

"Can I ask you something a bit personal?" Confused but star-struck, Haruka would have agreed to most anything Akiza asked. "Why does everyone just call him Yusei? I mean, doesn't he have other titles?" Straining the limits of academic routine to get his first degree, there were many who believed Yusei's original title of 'Dr' was partly political and partly honorary. After completing a few more degrees at a more normal pace, nobody was willing to disagree he was as intelligent as the rumours said, especially after he advanced to professorship.

"Yusei has some trouble being called 'Prof Fudo'. Even though he's worked harder than a lot of people, he wants his father to be remembered with that name." That almost made sense. Future generations would tend to crunch down decades into manageable chunks and two scientists of the same name so close together would risk diminishing both. "But he doesn't feel comfortable going around as 'Dr Fudo' or 'Director Fudo'. We use one of them on anything official but he likes being just 'Yusei' best." Moving onwards from the dimly depressing topic, Haruka decided to lunge for her secret trump card.

"Here." Grabbing a chunky box from her pocket, she thrust it out at Akiza with a nervous air. Thrown by her friend's excited energy, Akiza could only smile in laughter. "It connects to your phone and the local SRC network." Her old friend had managed to acquire an earpiece with a strong magenta colouring that Akiza instantly adored. "Yusei designed a virtual interface to the main computer systems. If you ever need anything, just tap the earpiece, ask for Abi and tell it what you want."

"I love it." Grabbing her friends hand, she tugged her down the corridor. "Come on, you still have to show me the main medical bay." After a few minutes and some directions from a cartographer, the pair were soon marching the other way down the corridor.

* * *

Seven hours later and Haruka was relieved to be able to call it a day. Despite her best attempts at guiding Akiza, the older woman had almost gone out of her way to get lost. A visit to the rarely used holding cells had somehow resulted in them in triggering the security features and getting locked in the section for a tense ten minutes as the guards on hand tried to figure out what was happening. By the time that debacle had been overcome, the extensive library had been closed to catalogue a fresh batch of books. An attempt to locate the garage had been foiled by an ongoing feud with the linguistics department of all people and nobody had been allowed in for almost two days. Against her better judgement, Akiza had loved every minute of it.

Working in the SRC was like taking a stroll through the mind of its leader. Squabbles were constantly erupting between various groups, everybody seemed to be constantly shouting at somebody else and there was an unmistakable feeling of laughter coming from all sides. Nobody seemed to be taking their work seriously until somebody official came along and they were forced to act responsibly. As soon as the coast was clear, the scientists and staff instantly went back to just enjoying the cauldron of mayhem that somehow formed the cutting edge of scientific progress.

With the clock ticking towards four in the afternoon and the sun lurking near the horizon like a teenager near a crush, Haruka had finally directed her towards the changing room her clothes had been stored in that morning. When Akiza pointed out the relatively short span of time she had been there, Haruka had just smiled that beaming smile everybody seemed infected by.

"There are three shifts for medical staff." Pressing against a wall, Haruka and Akiza watched a long wooden crate wheel past with an odd smell of rotting squid and saltwater air. "Midnight to eight in the morning. Eight to four in the evening. Four in the evening back to midnight." As the last of the assistants skimmed past, she led them both down a different corridor to avoid the smell. "Staff can apply to swap shifts a day before but need two days notice to take another shift."

"That can't be a good income." Smiling slightly, Haruka ducked past an open door with an almost fearful air. "Why don't you just have two twelve-hour shifts instead?"

"Because," Right on cue, an explosion sounded behind them and something puffy and white rebounded off the corridor wall. "Stress levels got too high. Ogino asked us if anybody had a better idea and we eventually decided to cut our hours into shorter shifts. You can still apply for twelve-hour shifts up to three times a week but the pays good enough that nobody really does." As a student working towards a degree, Haruka's stamp of approval went a long way towards the state of pay.

Ducking into the changing room, Akiza was prepared for the cramped conditions of early birds for the last shift trying to negotiate around the fresh arrivals for the next one. It was as she was taking off her scrubs that a polite chime from her phone announced a message from Ogino. Something told her the conversation would have been more personal had Akiza somehow managed to locate the right floor and office but still be in the wrong building. Pulling her shirt over her head, she scrolled through the text with one hand as the other worked her hair free. "It looks like I'm starting properly tomorrow. What's 'Alice' mean?" It was probably a mis-type but that was definitely what it said on her screen – she was to 'Alice' a researcher.

"It means you have to stop people from going too far down the rabbit hole." Nesting her chin against a knee, Haruka began tying her shoe laces up. "Make sure they don't lose themselves in their research. Most nurses get it as their first job."

"That makes sense." There had been a few dark days at the Dian Keto where Akiza would look up from her studies and realised literal days had passed her by. "It says I'm working for somebody called," She scrolled back up the page. "Dr Din." Silence fell in the changing room. "What's he like?" Looking up, she realised everybody was avoiding her eyes.

"India's nice. You should try it sometime. Now is good." A few stony-faced medics drifted out the door.

"Dr Din's a well-respected voice in the field. Any field." Several more people – some of them not entirely changed – walked out. Trapped like a rabbit in headlights, Haruka quailed under confused look she got from Akiza.

"Dr-Din-is-a-very-honest-man-and-not-many-people-get-to-work-with-him." Squeaking out the words faster than Akiza could keep up, she bolted out of the room with one lace still undone. Even though she would trust Yusei with her life, there was an unmistakable feeling somebody was messing with her first posting. And where better to start than at the top?


	9. Din

After an intense study the day before, Akiza had managed to make a mental map of the main SRC buildings in her mind. It was fragmented into random clusters of information – this lab is two floors and a bit to the west of that office, you can get between these buildings through that walkway – but worked well enough for her to piece together a rough idea of where she was going. All the grey corridors looked the same initially but she quickly began to identify certain oddities. Which ones had full-length windows and which had concrete walls. Those with metal doors and the ones with glass panels. Not wanting to arrive late, she actually reached the SRC before the first shift had even left for the morning and made use of her spare time finalising the map inside her mind. By the time her shift officially began, Akiza had already committed not only the floor she was on but the ones above and below to memory. Unfortunately, she had not gathered much information on the mysterious Dr Din. Everybody she asked would instantly become shifty and mutter a few shining compliments before making an excuse and vanishing. In the end, she could only return to wait outside the assigned laboratory for her charge to arrive in spectacular fashion.

Dr Din was not what she had imagined. Instead of the polished, urbane gentleman she had been expecting, she was greeted – for lack of a better word – by a profoundly ugly, squat, misshapen old man. His legs were bowed and gnarled like oak trunks. His shoulders were huge, and his hands dangled below his knees. There was a large hump in the middle of his back, and his face was twisted into a grotesque caricature of a human countenance. His straggly, iron-grey hair and beard were matted, glue and spots of burning in the tangles. His hideous face wore an expression of perpetual contempt and anger. Almost as an afterthought, he had forced both gnarled arms through the sleeves of a lab coat and taken what extra material he didn't need off with his bare hands. Mud and grime was soaked deeply into the trailing material and it reeked like it hadn't been washed possibly ever.

"Not a pretty sight." Good manners forced her to disagree, her gag reflex kept Akiza's mouth clenched tightly shut. "Guessing you're the new bitch on the pissing post." Thumping the door several times, he simply smashed the lock from the frame. "About time." His twisted form made it possible – easy actually – to swing on his knuckles like a gorilla as he walked. "Some damn idiot always seems to be intent on wiring my lab up for alarms. If I wanted this place secure, I'd bother putting something down those idiots could understand." Stealing a last gasp of fresh air, Akiza stepped into an academical equivalent of nirvana.

Formulas were scrawled across every surface. Chalkboards had been lined up at every possible angle until there was no room to swing a test tube. She could recognise parts of the research. A touch of neurological limitations here, some altered metabolic rates there but far ahead of what anybody else on the planet was working on right then. Something rolled across the floor and she was able to make out a piece of chalk. "Don't mind the clutter." Stepping on a series of broken drawers like a staircase, Dr Din was clambering onto the window ledge with the intent of a rock climber. Reaching up as high as his malformed shoulders would let him, he poked the latch on a window until it swung open in the breeze.

Scrambling across the room, Akiza could feel literal layers of grime beneath her hands as she made to pull the suicidal scientist back from the brink of his own destruction. "Get off me." Pushing her hard enough to slip off – not that there was much grip to begin with – Dr Din swung his way over to another set of drawers and pulled a dead rat from the top one. "If I want somebody to throw themselves at me, I'll walk into a brothel with a sack of money." Shuffling back to the window, he sat on his rump with the carcass beside him.

"What are you doing?" Wiping as much muck as she could onto the legs of her scrubs, Akiza looked around the room for something to clean her hands with.

"Well, I've got a rat and an open window." Sarcasm dripped from his tone like the grease from his shoulders. "Maybe I was planning on running away to join the circus." There was a twisted note in his voice.

"I'm going to have to insist that we close the window." Adopting her stern voice, Akiza walked up beside him and reached over to shut the glass pane. When a grip with the rigidity of steel fastened around her arm, second thoughts began to emerge.

"Do you know why we're only on the second floor?" His tone was polite but her fingers were changing colour as her other hand wasn't having much luck peeling off even one gnarled digit. "It's because the last idiot who tried shutting my window fell through it. Ruined my herb garden to boot." Slowly releasing his grip, Akiza felt feeling return to her appendage.

"I'm going to see Dr Ogino about getting you a better carer. One more suited to your needs." Stepping away, she rebounded from a blackboard and tried to stop it flipping onto her head. Trying to back away again, the laces on her shoes became trapped in the wheels and tugged it after her. A quantum physicists dream jabbed her from behind as she tried to undo the tangle and either the formula for eternal youth or a pie recipe smashed her in the skull as she tore her foot free from the shoe instead.

"Well," Cackling at the show, Dr Din had swivelled on his rear to face her. "You lasted longer than most." Chewing slightly, he spat out of the open window. "What, that harlot who hires you people finally start looking for backbone?" Akiza opened her mouth to retort at the same moment a large feathered bird soared in through the window and settled on Dr Din's shoulder. A neurologist by training and medic by trade, Akiza was far from an ornithologist but knew a hawk when she saw one. There was probably an entire department in the SRC who would kill to study the specimen daintily avoiding tearing Dr Din's fingers as he held the mouse up for it to eat. "Sorry, were you going to say something?" Snack done, the bird lowered it's head and affectionately nuzzled the matted hair by his ear.

"Nice bird." Lowering herself in slow movements, Akiza silently crawled backward through the maze of blackboard legs towards the door. In a flash of lavender, the majestic creature swooped down and hopped to a halt in front of her. "Niiiice bird." There was probably some clever tactic for scaring the buzzard away she had learnt as a child. It might have involved not flinching when the bird screeched and hopped closer. "How did you train it?" Booming laughs came from the side where Dr Din sat.

"Vella isn't trained. You think anybody could cage a spirit as free as hers?" Swallowing nervously, Akiza watched the bird flutter up and sit calmly on her leg. One swift rip would ruin her tendons and any chance of walking unaided again. After a careful inspection, the claws dug their way up her back and dug slightly into her shoulder. Not tight enough to draw blood but enough to let it be known that was always an option. "Well now." Instead of worried or cheerful, Dr Din sounded mildly curious. "That's new." A sharp scream from her ear had Akiza shiver in fright. "Slowly now, walk her back to me." Dragging one arm forward slightly, Akiza shuffled a few inches before the next scream came. "Are you deaf as well as stupid? I said _walk!_ " Rising slowly to her feet, Akiza felt the claws shuffle slightly as the bird fought for balance.

"I take it this is a study of some kind." Inching her way through the blackboards, she felt a few strands of hair being pulled from her head by a sharp beak. Insulted and unwanted by her charge, held hostage by a bird. Her first solo day was not shaping up for the record books.

"Insofar as she's deciding whether to rip your ears off or not." There was something about the offhand comment that made Akiza think back to the shocked faces that morning. Nobody quite saying anything exactly bad about Dr Din but nobody telling her to run for the hills either. It was a stupid hazing.

When the distance between the two had shrunk to a few feet, the bird began crawling to the edge of her shoulder. Faced with the option of long scars or a stay of execution, Akiza raised her arm until the bird could happily hope along the length and perch on her wrist. "Here." Holding his own arm parallel, Dr Din winced slightly as the claws dug tighter into his arm than they had Akiza's. After a second, Vella began making little chirrups and burbling noises. "No, that's not." A sharp screech cut off the rest. "Yes. Yes. I understand. No. Yes. You know I do." Caught in the most peculiar conversation of her life, Akiza would have made for the door again if she thought there was a chance the bird wouldn't catch her. "I'll see you tomorrow." Turning around, he let the bird hop to the ends of his gnarled fist and swoop away into the city. "Now then." By the time he turned around, Akiza was already halfway out of the door. "Hey!"

Slipping slightly at every other step, Akiza sprinted the halls of the SRC with sounds of an active catastrophe closing in behind her. A swift bolt through a geology lab was followed by the sounds of several tonnes of rocks spreading about the floor. Rebounding off a glass wall as she misjudged a corner only made it that much easier for Dr Din to erupt through it, curse and insult the scientists inside and then continue his dogged pursuit of the fleeing nurse. Despite her best attempts to shake him, Akiza could feel the aptly named Dr Din growing closer the longer she kept running. Several flights of stairs gave her the edge she needed to gain ground and she managed to locate just the room she wanted just before Dr Din could see her go inside.

"Dr Ogino!" Barrelling In through the door, Akiza immediately began piling everything she could lay her hands on into a makeshift barricade. "He's mad, mad!" Grabbing one end to a heavy bookcase, she began levering the end against the door as Ogino looked on in utter confusion. "I know you gave me a break and stood up to Yusei but there is no way I can work for Dr Din." As she slid a potted plant with her foot, it became increasingly obvious that her pursuer had stopped causing a ruckus in the corridor outside.

"Just out of interest," Picking up the phone on her desk, Ogino began dialling a number. "What was the final straw?" Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, she reached for a pen and paper.

"He set a hawk on me!" Pausing with the pen still several inches above the paper, Ogino mulled this information over.

"Arm or leg?" Looking over the un-bloodied scrubs, she blanched slightly. "Not _another_ ear." That particular muttering wasn't missed by Akiza as the growing silence began sending fresh chills down her spine.

"This has happened before?" Nodding absently, he boss continued to doodle against a tiny equation.

"A few minor scrapes. An industrial spy managed to get hired once. We haven't had much of a problem since" A glazed look crossed her eyes and it was clear _absolutely nothing was being covered up_. "'A wild bird flew in through the open window and ripped her damn ear right off.'" Screams sounded from the next room over and Ogino looked up in interest.

"He knows where my office is." Something heavy fell on the other side of the wall. "Oh, he wouldn't." Glowering slightly, she indicated Akiza join her hiding on the far side of her desk.

Crouched in the footwell, Akiza made use of her phone and a tiny gap beside the carpet to observe the next few moments. First came a loud thump that made a picture fall off the world. Then another placed a slight crack in the wall. On the third attempt, a large hole of plaster and insulation exploded into the room, coating everything in a fine dust and shaking the windows. Rolling across the floor, Dr Din came to an awkward pile on the other side of the wood from a shivering Akiza.

"Dr Din." Raising herself in a tired manner, Ogino exuded the air that she was already accustomed to such antics. "When I asked you to stop breaking my door down, I did not mean for you to move onto the walls instead." Growling gently, Dr Din heaved his twisted form onto the mound of items beside the door.

"Just doing a bit of light cleaning?" Rummaging a hand beneath him, Dr Din grabbed a pointed award trophy and dropped it carefully onto a cushioned chair.

"I might have heard you had been assigned another nurse." Keeping her gaze fixed on the grubby scientist, she relaxed into her own chair and waved away the scared faces looking through the hole in her wall. "How long did this one last?"

"Maybe five minutes." Scratching his filthy beard with an unwashed hand, Dr Din seemed to be chewing something. It was best not to ask what. "Made friends with Vella and all." Wincing at the memory of claws gripping her shoulder, Akiza resisted pictures of people Vella didn't like.

"Vella the bird?" Tucking in, Ogino avoided kicking Akiza as she scrunched even tighter into the corners beneath the table. "Same hawk that stole two fingers from one of my best surgeons?" Cackling evilly, Dr Din seemed unable to show the slightest compassion.

"Bastard took a swipe when my back was turned. Consider her lucky that I didn't see." There was an offhand violence about him that outdid even the most brutal of gangsters. "Vella seems to have taken a shine to the newbie. I want her." Poking Akiza with one foot to prevent her bursting out in rage, Ogino glared down the demand.

"Based on your past experiences with any medical oversight," An entire department of scared faces screamed out from history. "Can you tell me even one reason I should ask _anyone_ back into your lab?" There was a sound of gargling marbles as he cleared his throat.

"She's a flabby cow with a wide bottom and too much brains to be wasted patching up every scraped knee when one of those idiots out there falls over." Twisting in his seat, a display of unexpectedly gleaming teeth was enough to send the last onlookers scurrying from the next room and locking the door for good measure.

"And you're basing this on what?" Reaching into an armpit, he began a vigorous scratching.

"Damn lice." Noticing the look he was getting, Dr Din lowered his arm again. "She's professional. Didn't make any comments and kept her head when Vella showed up." Shifting slightly, he tried not to make it obvious that one hand was scratching his back. "Doesn't hurt that she's quick enough on her feet to get around my work. Where do we stand on getting my books back?"

"The library has denied you any access to, or use of, _their_ books." A sour grunt met the stern warning with indifference. "Don't take that tone with me. One of the volumes you defaced was three centuries old!"

"Wasn't my fault." He sniffed. "I was just correcting the problems in it." Such wanton destruction seemed unable to faze him.

"Be that as it may, I'm not in any position to order staff into working alongside persons they feel unable to cope with." Rising to her feet, Ogino made it clear the meeting was over.

"You still running that pool?" A shifty look crossed Ogino's face and she stubbornly didn't look down. "How long people last with me?" Knuckling his way over to the desk, Dr Din clambered atop it to stare her straight in the eye. "I want to place a bet." Licking her lips in abject terror, Ogino couldn't keep her composure much longer. Already, her eyes twitched to the still form under the desk. "I'm betting that you get that flabby cow back in my lab before lunch." Grabbing a pen and official document from the desk, he scrawled a ham-fisted string of writing across the paper. "And then I'm betting she stays," Lips mouthing numbers as he worked off the date, Dr Din soon settled on a number. "About five months before she goes for another posting." Folding the paper in half, he held it out between them.

"I will _consider_ asking her." Holding out a hand for the paper, Dr Din smiled cruelly and dropped it under the table. "If you consider trying to moderate your language." Grumbling slightly, Dr Din jumped back to the floor.

"Enjoy your cleaning." Clambering back through the hole, Dr Din overcame the problem of the locked door by simply smashing through it with his powerful fists. "Well," An evil grin split his face at the crowd gathered outside. "Hello." In the resulting stampede, two people were trampled to get away from the psychotic scientist.

"Sorry about him." Crouching down, Ogino looked in on Akiza. She had opened the folded piece of paper and was reading intently. "Dr Din gets like that sometimes." Clambering out from the hole, Akiza held out the note for her boss to read. "Oh that," Written on the paper was the biological breakthrough of a decade. "He wrote that two years ago. It's restricted for security reasons."

"It's brilliant." Tearing the paper from Ogino's hands, she re-read the equations with a look of awe. Staring at her star hire, Ogino could feel her attention slipping further into the work written on the paper.

"I take it you want to continue working for him?" Wrestling the paper from Akiza's clutches, Ogino stored it back inside the original file. "A few things you should know: that buzzard of his drops by at least once a day, he has more insults in his head than stars in the sky, this was him on a good day, he hasn't washed since last year and not a word I'm saying is getting through, is it?"

"What's his field of study? Is all his work like that?" Eyes gleaming, Akiza was ready to throw herself back on the pyre of learning under the tutelage of an eccentric teacher.

"Dr Din doesn't study any particular field because he's brilliant in all of them." Dusting off her plants, Ogino began moving them back into position. "Help me with the bookcase?" What Akiza had moved on adrenaline took the two women a few minutes to put back in place. "If it weren't for Yusei, that man would either be homeless or locked up. Most of his money goes towards repairing the damage he causes around the SRC. He's one of the most brilliant minds you'll ever meet so we put up with his temper." Only about every third word was getting through. What Dr Din had written on the paper was as brilliant as anything Akiza had seen. By the time she had helped finish putting the office back together, there was no doubt left in her mind. Despite the crude nature of her charge, working with Dr Din was the opportunity of several lifetimes and she couldn't afford to let it slip by.

* * *

Working at the SRC was a lot like watching the formation of a new universe. People hurtled through the corridors and hallways like rogue comets, light patches and dark rooms fluttered by at irregular intervals and there was the occasional explosion somewhere that could have unforeseeable effects but generally just went *whumph* and flared out. Skirting the outside of various catastrophes, Akiza managed to make her way back to Dr Din's lab without any great incident. Of course, the sturdy research laboratory was maybe the most deadly room in the building.

Just as she was coming down the corridor, one of the numerous blackboards hurtled from the door at speed and smashed into the wall opposite. After a few seconds, the protective frame cracked and the blackboard itself fell to the floor in a cloud of dusting. Stumping out into the corridor, Dr Din wrapped one gnarled fist about the edge and dragged it back into his lair. Gentle *clicks* and *clacks* sounded from within before he emerged to drag the ruined frame back in, spotting Akiza as he turned.

"Ah, the dumpy cow. Might as well come in." Scooting the ruined frame first, he vanished back into his room where the sound of crackling fire could be heard. Curious but not stupid, Akiza kept as much cover as she could beside the doorframe before peering inside.

"What are you doing?" Snapping the legs off another blackboard, Dr Din threw them into a burning sink and shifted the remaining science into a corner.

"Making room." Wheeling another board over to the sink, he forced it through the same procedure before adding the board to the pile. "Since those whelps who run the library started adding guards, I've been forced to make do with what little I can get." As part of her orientations with Haruka, Akiza had seen several lumbering guards in full riot gear. With enough forces, it was possible they could inconvenience Dr Din for a while.

"Why do you use blackboards?" Picking the discarded chalk sticks scattered across the room, Akiza began searching for a tub of some sort to put them all in. "I'm sure there are better ways to record your thoughts."

"All those weird computers out there," It was a weird way he had of using the word. Like it was a new thing to him. "They take away the talent needed to actually do things. I prefer to do things the old way." Throwing another set of spokes on the pyre, he clambered up the broken drawers to squat beside his window. "Holograms are fun though. Reminds me of the tricks I used to pull." Most of the boards had been dismantled and consigned to one corner to the room. With the clutter cleared up, the remaining space was unexpectedly large.

"I read your note." There was no point in trying to deny it. He had chased her closely right up until the last flight of stairs and broken down a wall just to get past the door. Short of lifting the desk to find her, he had done everything to point out where she was hiding. "It's brilliant." Droopy eyes narrowed at the compliment as Akiza dumped the handfuls of chalk in an empty drawer.

"Never expected something so good from something as ugly as me?" There was anger and rage in his voice as Dr Din rose on his legs, looking like some form of angry gorilla from the disproportionate length of his limbs.

"I didn't expect to see something like it for another four years." She met his outrage with cool detachment. "Which makes you six years early." Seasoned eyes searched her face for any trace of a lie and found none.

"Neurology your field?" A quick nod got a sour grunt. "Can't stand it myself. People thinking the brain holds magical powers." Waddling to the end of the counter, he dragged one of the few remaining mobile boards with him. "Tell me what you think of this." Swinging the board across the room, Akiza grabbed the frame and studied the beautiful formulas written across the surface.

"Hang on." Retrieving a short piece of chalk, she inscribed a few additions in perfect cursive. "It was missing a few bits." Walking it back, she watched him study the additions with a clenching jaw.

"There are better piles of slop in a broken privy." Enraged by the insult, Akiza held her tongue as he continued to read through her work. "This," Thrusting a dusty finger, he erased an entire line. "This could turn a priest to drink." Each addition to his work was degraded, erased or simply scribbled over with more chalk. By the time he had finished, everything from her ancestry to her species had been insulted in some way. "Other than that." Shattering his writing instrument with an angry jab, the irate scientist underlined the final equation. "It's not bad work for a dumpy cow with manure for brains." It was the first semi-nice thing she had heard him say. Maybe the first anybody had heard him say. "Get me books." Greed and deception glittered in each eye. "Bring me something worth my time and I'll let you work for me."

"My dear Dr Din." Smiling sweetly, Akiza kept that dangerous anger of hers under tight control. "If anybody is going to anything, you're going to stop shouting at me before I have you thrown into a psychiatric holding centre. If they see fit to release you, I'll make sure you never get a moments quiet again." Various colours shifted through his face as she outlined a pattern of perfectly legal restrictions that rendered him with the freedom of a toddler wanted for murder. "Or you can get used to my presence and accept that maybe you're not the only intelligent person in this room." Pink became purple, became a dangerous shade of red, became almost black with anger.

Thrusting one twisted finger at her, Dr Din forced his voice so deep the words were mangled before they even left his mouth. "Nobody has pissed me off this much since I came here." In moments, the colours in his face shifted back to normal as he burst out laughing. "You can drop the 'Dr'. It's a stupid title. Just call me... Din." There was a heavy tone to the name. Shame, regret, loss and a strange note of reconciliation. "Not many people see beyond my ugly body. You're the third person to treat me right since I came here." Knuckling his way to rat fridge, he pulled a pair of cans from inside. "Let's make a deal." Dropping one can in his pocket, he scurried back to where she was reading the work on the other side of the board. "Keep up with me and I'll not tell Yusei I finally have a complaint." Chalk usually snaps or fractures under pressure. Seeing it gently ground to a fine dust was enough warning to warrant a quiet shuffle away.

"Say that last bit again." Scratching a particularly marred part of his beard, Din cast his mind back.

"Yusei dropped by when you were still hiding under that harlot's table. Wanted to know if I had any complaints against your level of work. Seemed like he was fishing for something to use, if you catch my drift." She didn't quite. Knowing her boss was out to get her was par for the course in most every avenue of life. Trying to imagine Yusei was trying to ruin her new job was not something she could imagine. "Guess you owe me one for covering. I said you were probably lost trying to find both hands with your bottom." A mean cackle died away in face of the icy smile she was treating him with.

"Excuse me a moment." Carefully placing the chalk on the side, she gently dusted her hands clean and walked out into the corridor. Brushing her hair back, she tapped the earpiece already linked up to her phone. "Abi."

" _Hello, Dr Izinski. How can I help you today?_ "

"Where is Yusei right now?" A moment's silence went by as the computer processed her question.

" _Unavailable until tomorrow morning. Would you like to make an appointment?_ " Breathing deeply through her nose, Akiza kept her features as steady as a continent.

"That's okay. He works in Building Eight, correct?" A much shorter pause went by this time.

" _Yes. On the twenty-third floor. Is there anything else I help you with?_ " Pinching her nose, Akiza let the fire behind her eyes smoulder gently.

"No. I can take it from here." What many people failed to remember was how the continents basically floated across an ocean of liquid fire that can erupt at any time. Though she looked calm on the outside, anybody can be fooled by a dormant volcano that hasn't erupted in a while. Mt Akiza was long overdue for an eruption and Yusei was headed right for a disaster of his own making.


	10. Obake

There are two ways to stop a determined woman on the march – do everything she says as she says it or take the next planetary exit and hope she doesn't hitch a ride to follow. Psychologists have been debating it for years and had found no concrete solutions. That said, reinforced walls and doors that could stop a speeding tank (as testified to by Building Seven), withstand a rocket attack (Building Three) or survive ten hours of attacking mobs (Building Two) was enough to put a dint in Akiza's stride. Until that morning, her medical credentials had granted access to every nook and cranny of the SRC. It would be the one door she wanted to tear from the hinges that she wasn't allowed to open. Few members of staff were walking around the grounds so early in the morning but one trained psychologist spread the word until the pathways were clear of bodies and forced Akiza to take more unorthodox measures.

"Abi." Tapping the earpiece screwed into her skull, she bounced on her heels in the second it took her phone to connect to the computer.

" _Hello, Dr Izinski. How can I help you today?_ " Akiza cracked a grim smile.

"Something appears to be wrong with the doors into Building Eight. My credentials aren't working." Lights flickered across the panel as the computer ran a diagnostic.

" _There is a fault in the circuitry. External doors can only open from inside Building Eight._ " Switching to the balls of her feet, Akiza glared at the top of the building above her.

"Is there any way I can get in?" If Yusei wanted a building closed up, it was unlikely he would leave the proverbial window open. That said, if anybody knew the building better than Yusei, it was the computer that ran that building.

" _Yes._ " Waiting patiently, Akiza was barely surprised when more information failed to come.

"Stupid computer." Denizens of the past had envisaged artificial intelligence dripping from every tree. With more restrictions than even cloning, the resulting half-hearted 'virtual intelligence' still left much to be desired. "Abi, what is the quickest way I can access Building Eight?"

" _Utility tunnels run beneath the SRC facilities and have internal access to all buildings. Warning: access is restricted. Warning: communication is restricted. Warning: illumination is res_ "

"Just tell me how to get there." Even though the computer technically lacked tones, there was an unmistakable hint the list was going to continue on for a long time.

" _Optimal access is located within the main SRC. Please return to the main complex for further directions._ " Pausing only long enough to glower at the windows high above, Akiza considered the wisdom of making a crude gesture as she stalked across the pathways to the main buildings. It was a goodly distance between the outer ring of buildings but Akiza's angered pace ate up the journey with gusto. Word of her temper had already spread to the main building and the heavy outer doors opened up into a deathly quiet hallway. Dr Din had a reputation for having a 'short temper'. Hearing he was wary of the enraged Akiza was like hearing stories about the one that got away – nobody quite believed it but they didn't poke around just in case.

"Where now?" On cue, a previously hidden door just to her left clicked open. As a perfectly flat panel just beside a supply close, it was inevitable that the scientists simply overlooked the hidden door in favour of the more obvious one. Sliding her fingers into the tiny gap, Akiza pulled the door fully open and looked through it. Flights of dull concrete steps lay before her as rarely used strip lights flickered into life overhead. A slight odour of damp air wafted past her in a chill breeze. Glancing back through the doors at Building Eight, Akiza fixed the direction firmly in her mind. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she only had to turn left and walk back towards it. From this distance, Yusei couldn't see her going underground and wouldn't be able to see her coming.

Carefully walking down the stairs, she heard the door click itself closed behind her. Keeping one hand on the blank wall beside her, she jogged down the four flights of cramped stairs at a fair pace, only stopping at the bottom when another door presented itself. Holding her identity card to the scanner, she pushed forth into the tunnels beneath. Without thinking anything of it, she immediately turned left and set off on her journey as the door closed behind her. Had she taken more time to consider it, Akiza would have noticed the mistake.

Back above ground, she had located Building Eight over to her left. As she had come down the stairs, that direction had inverted with every additional flight. Odd flights kept it to her left, even flights moved it to her right. With four flights, the direction had changed three times. In other words, she was heading in completely the wrong direction.

* * *

Four minutes later, Akiza had finally recognised three minutes earlier but chosen to ignore. She was hopelessly lost in this underground labyrinth and all of the corridors looked exactly the same. There hadn't been sign of another door since she had entered and she was starting to feel shame through the intense flames of her anger. Stopping at a crossroads, she tried to shake the feeling of being followed by unseen spirits and gathered her thoughts.

What little advice had she listened to from Abi? ' _Access is restricted_ '. As a medic, the only rooms off limits were classified projects with select access. ' _Communication is restricted_ '. From the lack of signal she was getting on either her phone or earpiece, that much was obvious. What had been the third entry on the list? Fate – never one to avoid the dramatic entry – chose that exact moment to begin turning off the lights. They started at one end of a corridor and began sweeping towards her at a ferocious pace. Sprinting to try and keep up with the lit corridors only sent her hurtling into a sharp corner with the shadows racing at her from both directions.

" _Illumination is restricted._ " At the time, she had attributed the warning to mean that there were few opportunities for sunlight to reach the underground. It actually meant the lights were on a timer. Five minutes after somebody came down, they turned themselves off. "Great." Fumbling her hands against the pitted wall, Akiza took faltering steps as she vainly tried to continue her attempt to find any form of escape. After what felt like miles but was probably only feet, she stumbled sideways onto the floor as the wall fell away. Stumbling to her feet, she reached out in every direction. Fingers brushing sharp corners, she was able to make out several openings. It was impossible to tell but a pessimistic part of her mind asked if it was the same junction as before. Panic began rising inside her and Akiza forced herself not to lost composure.

Between her pounding heart and heavy breath, she tried to make out any sound to indicate a way out. Maybe somebody else was going to use the utility tunnels which were protected with enough security to run a prison system any minute now. Or maybe she would simply go mad, live in these tunnels without light for years and start hearing voices. Then a whisper crossed her shoulder in a sinister fashion. Quiet, deadly, intense.

"Don't scream." Taking this information into account, Akiza swung around and landed a solid punch right where the voice had come from, screaming all the while for good measure.

"Stay down if you know what's good for you." Controlling her breath as best she could, both ears strained to hear any change in the darkness.

"Okay." For maybe the first time in a stand-off, one party was actually following the direction.

"Who are you?" There was a sound of spitting in the darkness but nothing else. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here. Tunnel maintenance, mostly." A moment passed between the sentences. Tingly instincts rose in the dark. "Dr Izinski?" Fabric rustled in the darkness as she reached for the pens in her pocket. They wouldn't do much good as a weapon but it was better than nothing. "Can I get up?" It was a man's voice and he didn't sound alarmed to be locked in the dark tunnels with her. Looking about herself – more from habit than any actual use – she considered her options.

"You might as well." Nothing sounded in the hallway. "I said, you can get up now."

"I heard you." Jumping slightly as the words sounded at head-height, she tried to make sense of her surroundings again.

"Do you have a torch?" Slight rustling sounded this time but no light came.

"Do you want me to go and get one for you?" Lunging desperately in the dark, she clutched awkwardly for something to hold onto.

"Don't leave." After a few seconds endless groping, she felt a gentle grip fasten to her own hand. Relief burst through her at the simple human contact and she held on as tightly as she could.

"Okay." There was something about the voice she couldn't quite place. It was soft, calm and sounded familiar for some reason. Like she had heard it somewhere recently. If panic hadn't been flooding her brain, she would have paid more attention. "Would you like me to walk you back to the SRC? You've gone quite a distance." In her haste to try and reach Yusei, Akiza had actually ended up almost half a mile in the wrong direction. The owner of the whispering voice would have been impressed if he hadn't been so dismayed.

"Can you get me to Building Eight? I need to talk with Yusei." Gears locked and turned inside the head of her acquaintance as routes mapped themselves out.

"Of course." Stepping closer to one side of her, the invisible figure placed his arm underneath her own. "Follow me carefully." Tugging her off down one side, she felt more than saw the corner of a wall passing before her eyes. "And you can put the pen away." Flushing guiltily, she stowed the makeshift weapon back in her pocket.

"Can I borrow your goggles? It's unpleasant being down here." A grim chuckle came from beside her.

"I'm not wearing goggles." A gentle left turn took them down a slightly warmer passage than the one they had just left. Heat was radiating from somewhere to her right and she wondered if it was from gas or water pipes.

"Right, next you'll be telling me you can see in the dark." Empty silence greeted her words. "Tell that to your grandmother." It was an old saying she had picked up from a patient at Dian Keto but worked best in the original translation. Luckily, the language barrier wasn't much of a barrier.

"I thought a heard traces of an accent. You speak _Deutsch, ja?_ " Between words, her companion slipped into rough German that garbled slightly in his hushed tones. "I spent some time in Düsseldorf. German is one of my favourite languages."

"You speak it well." She was bending the truth a lot. German was regarded as the hardest European language to learn and the pronunciation alone was terrible. "Did you spend much time there, Mr?" It dawned on her mid-way through the question that she hadn't asked for his name. Between the panic of being lost in the dark and being greeted by name, Akiza hadn't realised she didn't actually know this mysterious man's identity.

"A few months. Long enough to learn a bit of the language. Most people called me," She couldn't help but laugh at the word that followed. It was mispronounced horribly but there was no mistaking the intended target. "Yes, it is a mouthful. _Backpfeifengesicht_." It was one of the numerous so-called 'bastard words' of German that didn't really have an exact translation. A close approximation would be 'a face that needs to be punched'. "I assumed it was the German form of my name for a few weeks. A shame to be proven wrong." He switched back to Japanese again and Akiza concentrated on not laughing. "I am Obake. A pleasure to finally be introduced." Something about the way he said it inferred they had already crossed paths before.

"I'm sorry, but have we met? I feel like I know you from somewhere." In the calming regular tones of his voice, she realised the darkness had stopped being so utterly terrifying. It still scared her no end but being able to focus on the conversation had definitely taken an edge from the fear.

"We met once already." Passing another tunnel – she could feel the pressure of an opening close by – a slight hiss of steam or escaping gas reached her ears and she suddenly remembered where she knew the voice from. "You patched my leg up after an accident."

"Pipe man!" A bitter sigh came from her side at the title.

"Not the worst I've been called. I was glad you secured the job." Turning another corner, the sound of scraping stone came from his far side. It echoed dimly in the small tunnel. "Professor Ogino still has a few contacts and was particularly thrilled to hear you were available. Considering how effective you were at diagnosing my leg, it would appear she made the right choice." Scraping gave way to calm silence as he steered them down another dark alley. "Try and stay out of the tunnels in future. Professor Fudo generally doesn't like people coming down here." A slight tug indicated they had arrived at the destination as a tapping sound came from by her feet. "Take it slowly when you get upstairs. Air doesn't flow well down here, you may need a moment to adjust." Fabric whispered from beneath her grip and Akiza was suddenly very aware of all the ghost stories she had heard in Germany. Spirits said to guide lost travellers to their destinations or lure them into hidden graves.

"Obake?" Turning she hissed into the darkness, half-sure that he was already gone.

"Yes?" Resisting the urge to scream, she turned to face the blank sight beside her with a brittle little smile.

"Thank you for showing me the way out." A quiet cough indicated she was still several inches off her intended target. Feeling the deep bow more than seeing it, she carefully climbed up the stairs her latest colleague had shown her to. Light spread itself from a glowing keypad at the top of the flight. After so long in complete darkness, it was enough for her to see the outline of a thick metal door. Because the utility tunnels were doubtless a security weakness, she knew the door was strong enough to keep out most anyone who wasn't allowed in already. After two near misses to swipe her card, she watched the red light blink several times as the computer processed her credentials. An eternity of waiting later, the green light flickered begrudgingly into life. Heaving on the door with what strength she had, Akiza managed to open a gap big enough to wriggle through before the heavy weight could swing shut on her again.

* * *

Inside was barely better than the tunnels. Thick stacks of covered equipment cluttered the underground room with a heavy painted line protecting the area near the door. Though the details were hard to make out, she could see enough of the room to navigate thanks to a thin sliver of light coming from under the door across the room. Wading through the piles of clutter, she clambered the maze of objects until reaching the debatable safety of the stairs. Numerous folders of paperwork had been stacked against the wall and carved out a tiny path for her to hobble up. Another keypad at the door responded marginally faster than the last and Akiza was able to collapse into an empty foyer on the other side of the conveniently malfunctioning doors. Unlike the main buildings of the SRC, it appeared the outlying buildings had only two elevators instead of the usual banks available.

"Abi." Tapping the earpiece still tightly screwed into her right ear, luck spun Akiza's way when the computer assistant responded instantly. "Is there anything wrong with the lifts in Building Eight?"

" _Please stand by._ " Lights flickered on the elevator panels and whirring gears could be heard from inside. " _No faults detected._ " Straightening her scrubs, Akiza stalked into the lifts just a little over forty minutes later than she planned.

"What floor is Yusei's office again? I'd hate to be late." With layers of sarcasm, irritation and outright rage compressing her voice into a thin stream of danger, the computer spat out the answer without any pleasantries.

" _Twenty-third._ " Taking the initiative, she set the lift whirring up the chute before Akiza even moved towards the button. " _Shall I tell him you're coming?_ " Joyful bouncing – the sort that made the smart people jump for the windows and the dumb ones hurt – cleared up the answer. When the doors opened, Akiza was looking out at a labyrinth of corridors crossing one another before her. Electronic locks hummed at every door and deathly quiet sounded (or rather didn't) from all directions. " _End of the hall._ " Maybe acting on some deep-coded empathic sub-routine, the computer was talking as little as possible. Walking as quickly as possible without running, she made good time across the floor and threw the door open in a dramatic fashion. (A small part of her was silently thrilled at perfect balance of force that let the door bang off the wall slightly without ricocheting back in her face.)

"I know you're probably angry at me right now." Staring at his computer, Yusei's oddly satisfied face was so disconcerting that she actually stopped in the doorway. "Feeling like I've cornered you into taking up a job you weren't really ready for. A lot of people are going to tell you a lot of things about me. More will try to lever you into agreeing with their own agendas. You'll make mistakes, feel out of your depth. I give it a week for you to adjust." That smile grew slightly and a twinkle appeared in his eye. "You'll figure out who is best at what, know who to trust and who to avoid. People say there's nowhere else in the world like the SRC. Just about everybody here will be ready to help as soon as you ask. It will take some getting used to but I know you're the best candidate for the job." Reaching out, he tapped the spacebar on his computer. After a moment, he pressed it again and resumed his previous stance. "Oh, and don't let my brothers in any labs. There's a reason they need an escort around the site." Clicking a program closed, he finally looked her square in the eye.

"Any questions?" Slamming the door shut, Akiza fumed in the hallway.

"Was it" Slam. Pause. Open door.

"Who" Slam. Pause. Open door.

"Sorry." Pause. Bigger pause. "It probably looks like I was a total jerk about this." Slam. This time, Akiza stayed inside the office. "Ogino arranged so many meetings for me that I couldn't get loose when she was showing you around. Nobody even told me you were here until the third meeting." A stern glare to keep the apology going. "Once you signed up, it looked like I had handed a disgraced doctor one of the most powerful postings in the city just because she happened to be my friend." Fire was liable to burst from her eyes and sear his skull if the apology didn't make a good point any second now. "It's my fault." One raised eyebrow gave enough slack in his noose to avoid hanging in that moment. "Ogino set everything up to distance your hiring from my involvement. If I hadn't screwed it all up, we'd be laughing with coffee and bagels." In their shared imagination, they tried to picture the squat, curt form of the former Minister for Health laughing at brunch. "Afterwards, the only way to keep your job safe was to throw up all sorts of objections against your posting. Nothing will keep you from carrying out your duties but everything that could cloud the waters against suspicion. Don't worry, Ogino promised to tidy up my mess."

With her anger slowly coming back under tight control, Akiza started to notice the little details. Plants in the far corners of the officer hadn't been watered, one of the blinds had been lowered in a hurry and left askew on one side. Numerous coffee stains overlapped on his desk and behind the carefully maintained facade, she could feel his exhaustion coming in waves. Although his eyes were bright and he must have slept recently, it was the sort of mental exhaustion she had found common among students pushing for a deadline. It also smelled like he hadn't left the office in days. Observations complete, she tuned back into what he was trying to say.

"It's going to take a few days for Ogino to get through all the complaints and paperwork. Once she's done, your job will be secure and even _I_ wouldn't be able to take it away if I wanted." Dragging both palms down a weary face, Yusei's hands met with not a trace of stubble. Being the genius that he was, Yusei had managed to squeeze a quick shave in before Akiza could arrive that morning. "I wish I had trusted you both a bit sooner. Ogino stole my idea before I could even think it and I reacted badly." Pulling open his top drawer, he reached inside for a cold cup of coffee.

"So." Walking closer, she gently slid into the padded chair across from his.

"Yeah." Catching his gag reflex, Yusei forced the disgusting concoction down his throat. "Shame isn't as nice as all the books make it out to be." Staring at the congealing liquid, he couldn't bring himself to look at his friend just then. "I am, you know. Sorry." It took that word for her to realise just how much and how little his world had really changed. This was _the_ Yusei Fudo, founder and leader of the New Domino City Scientific Research Centre, Duel Monsters World Champion and with one of the highest I.Q.'s ever tested. At the same time, he was the young man who would work hours into the night to shave a few grams from an engine design with his brothers and get up before them just to make coffee. Who would metaphorically fall on his sword sooner than let his friends come to harm. "About everything."

"Okay then." She let them both take stock of the situation for a moment. "Well, I'd better get back to Dr Din before he blows up his lab again." Chuckles burst into laughter as Yusei spilt his drink across his lap. "Something funny?" Remembering how much trouble he was still in, Yusei made an effort to staunch his giggles.

"Dr Din's an irritable little man with a _unique_ perspective on life." As he continued to snigger behind his mug, Akiza continued to glare him into submission.

"He calls me a dumpy cow. And that's the most polite I've heard him." Some of the more archaic words had needed a search on the internet. Their modern translations had left her ears burning.

"He called you a dumpy cow?" Most of the laughter contained, there was a gentle tilt to his smile. "That's what he used to call his daughter. Took me five years to learn that." A tear equal parts wistful and laughter eked from the corner of his eye. "Give him the worst insults you can think of and never try and correct his work. You'll do okay." Despite herself, Akiza started to smile. She was still furious deep down but couldn't help feeling like her charge was a lighter burden than he had let on.

"No problem. I'll tell him he's as smart as his boss is dumb." Catching his eye, she felt the first tenuous connections of a proper reconciliation being made. It would take a lot more than an explicit apology and some pointers to her job before all was forgiven but it was a start.

"There's something I want to give you. A puzzle for my favourite neurologist." Moving just enough to break the moment, he reached into his bottom drawer and pulled out a thick tablet. In an age of projected screens and datapads, there was one reason to still use such heavy equipment – hardcoded encryption. Whatever was on the tablet was the sort of information that needed to be kept safe from prying eyes.

"What's this?" Taking the tablet, she admired the polished screen as he held the top half.

"Something new. An old friend of mine fell ill some years back. A few people have tried searching for a cure but we've found nothing permanent." That plural perked up her ears. Many lauded Yusei as the smartest man alive. A puzzle even he couldn't solve? That was definitely worth a look. "It appears neurological in nature and manifests during stage three and REM sleep." Brushing his fingers past the power button, he let her take full possession of the tablet. "And as of right now, you know about as much as anybody else."

"Any attempted treatments?" Flicking through files, she glanced at an interactive brain scan with her peripheral vision.

"A few dozen. No positive results." Staring into the brown eyes, Yusei felt intellectual sparks start to fly.

"Prognosis?" And those sparks started to die off right then.

"People have been working on this for six years without results. You have four months." A slight flicker of doubt squashed her excitement. "After that, the patient plans to... take steps." It was not often that doctors heard the term and there was little they could do even though they realised the meaning behind it.

"Great. Any other handicaps I should know about?" A tentative smile lurked just under the face across from hers.

"No consultations with anybody besides myself, Ogino or Dr Din (mainly because he wont stop nagging until he knows what you're working on). No use of non-SRC facilities. No direct meetings unless you have a _viable_ treatment." It was an uneasy word to stress but Akiza swallowed it quickly. "And there are confidentiality reasons why some data is restricted but I'll get you everything you need." Sliding into another document, Akiza was unsurprised to see certain terms had been blacked out. "One more thing." She felt that flicker behind his eyes again. Like he was keeping something from her that he actually wanted to share. "I don't want to hear this has any impact on your regular duties. One late arrival or official complaint and your access will be revoked." Between beats, he shifted into 'Dr Fudo' mode. "Do I make myself clear?" Smiling that empty smile she reserved for driving people mad, Akiza matched his professionalism with tweaking his nose.

"Perfectly." She eventually broke their gaze to look at the tablet again. There was a lengthy directory pinned to one side of the screen with a total number of files in the mid thousands. It would take hours to get through it all. Exactly the sort of problem she loved to sink her teeth into.

"One more thing." Forcing herself not to descend into the pleasure of dissecting the problem, Akiza lowered the tablet into her pocket. "How did you get up here? Abi wouldn't tell me for some reason." Smiling that 'silly me' smile of hers, Akiza put on her best off-hand voice.

"I just came through the utility tunnels. There was a problem with all the doors _into_ Building Eight that I decided to use one for getting _out_ instead." She saw the tiny changes at the corners of his eyes and mouth almost as well as his brothers could. That tightening of his game face.

"Not many people use them these days. Keep saying they hear voices and see people that aren't really there." Without changing, they had somehow slipped into a complex game of cat and mouse.

"You mean Obake? Mmm, he is a bit odd." Upon hearing the name, she saw a tiny flicker in his eyes. It wasn't really fear but not quite shame. Something of the two. "Nice enough. We actually met a few days ago." Pieces of the puzzle assembled themselves inside Yusei's head. Little went on in the SRC (when Ogino didn't bombard him with meetings) that got past his attention.

"Ah. That explains it." Flipping over the playing board, he dropped the tense stance. "Obake isn't much of a people person. He does keep all the pipes and cables in good condition so I can't really complain when people go down there without authorisation and get spooked." Leaning back in his chair, Yusei scratched the right corner of his jaw. "He probably just wanted to pay you back." That wasn't the whole truth. Something else about her quiet guide he was worried she might find out. "You should probably go and meet Dr Din. Breakfast usually gives him enough energy to get really cranky for no reason." Glancing at her watch, she decided to accept the polite dismissal before somebody spoilt the mood.

Despite their tenuous progress, Akiza still bore enough anger to keep her warm on the walk back to the lift. Even with the shiny new toy and heartfelt apology, Yusei still had plenty to make up for. And there was something about Obake he was keeping secret. As the head of the SRC, there would always be confidential information he couldn't share but this was different. There was something else going on and she was going to find out what it was.


	11. Lunch

It had been a difficult week. Akiza had managed to learn her way around the main SRC and begun making some headway with the tablet Yusei had given her. Few files hadn't been redacted to some extent and they seemed to have been just lumped into one folder from several dozen different locations. All the metadata – any dates or time, people who accessed the files – had been removed until only the contents remained.

Nobody had tried entering the lab she shared with Din so far that week. It could have been his impulse to throw whatever he was holding at the gawking onlookers or maybe the at least daily visits from a hunting bird that hovered outside the window if it wasn't already opened open for her. After Din had translated the pecking on her first day had been to pick an errant insect out her hair, she and Vella had become firm friends. Nothing was quite as intimidating as having a hawk capable of blinding three people a minute perched on one shoulder and burbling gently at her. It was also fairly comforting in some way. Vella would screech at Din any time he raised his voice in Akiza's direction and he in turn would mutter fruitlessly after she had gone. Not entirely willing to take his conversations with the bird as gospel, Akiza had to admit he was either mad or brilliant.

Brilliant though he might be, there was the sort of impatient air about Din that came from being a genius in most things and those remaining to be clearly beneath his notice. In other words, he was regretting his decision to push Akiza's knowledge in neurology having apparently left studies of the brain behind 'several centuries ago'. So far, he had spent five days catching up on an equivalent number of years study from what looked like either discarded books or his own notes. Regardless of the material, there was no doubt that he was rapidly returning to the sorts of understanding that took most people a lifetime of study to achieve. More importantly, he wasn't being the least big smug about it. Degrading to all those without his intellect but not smug. As his re-education continued, Din slowly drifted across the open floor like a tornado that left piles of books and notes stacked haphazardly around the room. By the time he was beginning to approach her own levels of work, there wasn't any space left in the room for movement and Akiza was forced to look up from her study of the case file Yusei had given her.

"I think it's time we took a break and had some food." There was a slight grumble as his vacant gaze turned back to the piles of paper spread around the room and began reading the nearest book again. If he hadn't been at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, Akiza would have sworn she heard Din say something along the lines of _'_ _mumble, mumble, don't wanna take a break, grumble_ _'_ like a petulant teenager. "Din!" Finally getting through to her charge, they both looked around the room at the mess. Entire teams of interns would be needed to clear it all up. Squads of assistants would be needed. There was only one course of action they felt comfortable taking.

"Food first, then we burn what we don't need." Okay, maybe they diverged slightly at the end but Akiza and Din at least agreed on the need to eat.

"No fires but I packed us a lunch." There had been some eyebrows by Yusei the evening before but he had been skating on thin ice and said nothing to risk jeopardising their fragile relationship.

"That sounds familiar." She could recognize the tone of his voice. Whenever somebody got too deep into their studies – or 'down the rabbit hole' as the SRC put it – a lot of everything else they saw or heard generally went unnoticed. "Looked like crab salad." A glum nod confirmed the diagnosis. "Hate crab." It had occurred to Akiza throughout the course of the week that Din wasn't cruel for the sake of it but because he had long ago given up on the pleasantries most people used. Even as he moaned about her choice of food, he folded another book inside the one he was reading and joined her on the search for lunch. "What are we looking for?"

"Small tub, green lid." Picking her way across the room, Akiza began looking through the thick mounds of books like a weird merger between treasure hunter and archaeologist as she hunted between strata of research. Footsteps sounded at the doorway as they both ignored the latest in a long line of onlookers. Din would find something to throw soon and Akiza was fairly sure she could stem most of the bleeding before any serious damage was done. "With his mess, we'll find lunch in time for dinner." Crouching between two staggeringly high piles, she was scientifically amazed at how much dust had already accumulated on some of the books as the figure in the door finally poke.

"You still bring lunches?" Akiza dragged herself out from the cramped space and brushed the dust from her top as she turned to face the intruder. "Didn't anyone tell you about the cafeteria?" The little voice inside Akiza's head was screaming not to stare at anything. The bigger voice that was her mind screamed back exactly what she shouldn't be staring at.

"Not really. I just got dropped in this insanity and left to my own devices." More screams floated back and forth between her conscious and subconscious as a few smaller mountains collapsed in the shallow end of the mess.

"Koharu, you ugly bitch!" Stumping his way across the mounds of paper, Din kicked several times at an unyielding ankle. "Haven't seen you in weeks. Almost got my hopes up and thought you died." Reaching down, Koharu picked up the dwarf in muscular arms and fairly crushed the life from him in a tight embrace.

"Din. Still being a pain." Setting him down, she tugged his lab coat straight as the screaming continued inside Akiza's head. "What are you working on this time? Still trying to prove two and two makes four?"

"Please," Waving aside the jest, Din grinned through his stained teeth. "You've seen the paper. It took a few decades but I cracked it in the end."

"Sorry." Even for the insane cycles of the SRC, this conversation was spiralling beyond normality. "You proved two and two make four?" Grabbing Din before he could do any damage, Koharu lifted him aloft without any visible signs of stress.

"Didn't they give you a training manual for him?" Clawing at the limb holding him aloft, Din started screeching insults the two women tuned out. "Trying to prove the problem is a lot harder than it sounds. He did it but people still make fun of him for it. Best let sleeping dogs when it comes to it." Shaking Din slightly, she pulled his teeth from around her wrist and ignored the dribble on her lab coat. "Calmer?"

"Not really. I just need to take a," He caught the look Koharu was giving him. There were few people that Din deferred to but behind held aloft in one powerful hand was generally enough to warrant a temporary exception. "To use a toilet." After the last batch of shaking, a peculiar tinge had appeared on his face. Exactly why he needed the toilet was best left undeclared as Koharu lowered him back to the floor. "Tell you what, take the dumpy cow to the cafeteria and I'll catch up with you in five," A soft belch erupted from his lips and Din's colour shifted towards pale. "Make that ten minutes." Stumbling off down the corridor, he derived great satisfaction from making retching noises at whoever crossed his path.

"Care to show a girl where to get some food?" One reasonably sized palm reached out for Akiza to shake as the two ladies finally got around to formal introductions.

"Koharu. Pleasure to meet you." Akiza grasped the slightly clammy hand and shook once.

"Akiza. What are you studying here?" Don't stare, don't stare, don't stare. It was only the past few years studying medicine that was keeping her gaze fixed steadily ahead.

"Biology." A slight crack in her discipline had Akiza staring at the finger selecting their destination in the elevator. "I use available data on star systems to predict what life could have evolved there. Give the explorers a chance to prepare for new aliens." Words like 'aliens' usually went past without much serious notice. But considering that Akiza was technically the reincarnation of an ancient Incan and she had seen the future more than once already...

"Aliens? Really?" Koharu gave her a grin as the doors finally opened and the pair took a left.

"That's classified." Fluctuating levels of noise came from the other side of a wide pair of double doors at the end of the corridor. "On the bright side, it's steady work and I get good pay." Her newest companion held the door open to an enormous dining hall that seemed to be seating upwards of a thousand people. "Nooooo." Looks of despair floated across the face of Koharu that Akiza was definitely not staring at. "Chris made Fish Disaster." Akiza suddenly found herself dragged across the room to where the trays lay stacked in piles against the counters.

"Chris is?" A mop of curly hair thrust itself above the far side of the counter with a dish in each hand.

"Oh, Koharu. There you are." The eccentric fat man danced the plate over the counter and onto a waiting tray. "Your friends mentioned that you were going to check on dear Dr Din and Akiza so I made sure to save you all a plate. I'd love to stay and chat," The last part seemed more directed at Akiza than Koharu. "But I need to tend to my crème brûlée before it become a catastrophe." As the chubby chef hurried through the door in the back, there seemed to be flames flickering around the edges of the frame.

"Chris." The one word seemed enough to be a summary of the entire existence of the dishevelled cook. "We'd starve without him." Hefting the steaming dishes in either hand, Koharu shouldered a way through the thronging crowds to a small and underwhelmed table on the outskirts of the room near the bins and dirty trays. "Ladies." A few faces jeered back good-naturedly as Koharu set the plates down in a pair of empty seats. "Akiza, meet the nerd herd. Freakazoids, your new overlord." Akiza sat down opposite Koharu and jabbed the fishy mess on her plate without making eye contact at the already distracted faces.

"I'm not sure that overlord is the term I'd pick." The rest of the table were staring at Koharu with varying degrees of strained patience. With equally exaggerated movements, she raised her fork and inhaled a small mound of fish and rice.

"In that case, formal introductions." Koharu paused from shovelling food down her neck to work her way around the table. "This is Chiyoko and Vlado." A pair with pale hair raised heads at the sounds of their names and shared a quick wave. "Chiyoko doesn't really talk and Vlado is just a grumpy old Croat that can't speak anything else." The age difference between the two was about the same as Akiza and her father. Nevertheless, there seemed to be an unbreakable closeness between the pair. "Then we have the resident propulsion expert. Tom, say hi." A polished blond gave a charming smile and flirting wink from the far end. "Tom designs spaceships. Nobody actually builds his works but that's another thing altogether."

"And your work is so different." It seemed to be an old argument that they just went through the motions. "At least mine is provable." Koharu flashed a dark look down the length of the table.

"At least mine isn't redundant." Tom mimed being wounded in the chest as the scope circled back around to Akiza. For a moment she almost noticed the body Koharu had missed at the end of the table. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have missed it. As she was quickly learning, little was normal at the SRC.

A hiss of gas enveloped the air as Koharu's shoulders literally moved sideways several inches and her chest dropped forward to reveal a tiny seat. Akiza checked to see that the others were unconcerned a miniature version of Koharu was stepping out of the bigger one and seating herself on the large folded arms.

"I think that you're the first person not to mention the head thing." Somewhat relieved that she could now look normally, Akiza let herself breathe a mental sigh of relief. Unlike the moderately malformed Din, Koharu was a perfectly proportioned if small person. Walking around inside a robotic suit had given her the appearance of an unusually small head in relation to her stocky body.

"My work used to focus on poking around inside my own brain. Compared to that, I don't think that I can pass comment." Pitying looks were not the reaction that she expected.

"Akiza, there's no need to pretend." Koharu shifted the mechanical arms into a slightly more comfortable position, bracing against the table as she did so. "Chiyoko is voluntarily mute, Vlado barely understands a single word we say." The grumpy Croat glanced up at the sound of his name before returning to the large helping of fish in front of him. "Tom over there has daddy issues with his admiral father and spent some time in prison." Pretty boy at the end suddenly had a slightly dangerous edge to his charming features. "And I'm the only person here under four feet who has to wear a robot suit just to keep up with health and safety regs." It escaped Akiza's notice that the figure at the end of the table had been skipped in the list. Trying to re-evaluate her new friends again let it slip beneath her notice again.

"How's my favourite band of outcasts doing today?" The looks of mild comfort disappeared from around the table to be replaced by looks of utter dread.

"Masayoshi." Shockingly arrogant features reared themselves from the rest of the room. Slicked back dark hair and a group of followers too intelligent to be cronies but too fawning to avoid being toadies.

"Justice." The distinction seemed important to the towering figure. Only a few strokes separated the names but it was enough to be touchy over. "Doctor Izinski, might I recommend a seat at our table?" One scarlet eyebrow raised at the invitation.

" _Our_ table?" An expensively manicured hand indicated a table across the hall that Akiza knew from her time at university. Not the exact table but the behaviour that came from it. Rich and spoilt kids that had never spent three days without sleep and pulling extra shifts to make ends meet because their parents footed every bill. Akiza might have come from a well-off background but she had made it clear that she didn't want them to give her money unless she was on her last ropes. Her father had slipped a few notes into her account now and then but only enough to spring for a night off here and there. "I think that you might find the company more to your liking." The rest of the group was already looking away in defeat, knowing the social hierarchy and their place in it. Only a single deep eye at the far end kept a hidden watch, unnoticed by the gazes around the table.

"The company seems fine right here." Even a tone as politely pleasant as the one Akiza used couldn't mask the rudeness she was using. "Enjoy the meal." Masayoshi - because there was no way that Akiza would be calling him 'Justice' - Masayoshi's smile suddenly turned a bit sickly. It was clear he was at the SRC through politics rather than sheer talent and was unused to not getting his way.

"You're not serious?" Akiza feigned a complete lack of understanding. "You'd rather sit here with these _freaks_?" The word brought unwanted flashes of memory to Akiza's mind and she almost stood up before the unnoticed figure at the end rose to feet.

There was that now familiar twinge that she should know who this was. Picking a blazer from over his knee, he shrugged the black jacket over his shirt and picked up his tray. Normally, people would have been more focused on the fight than somebody trying to leave. Even Koharu was more normal than the man at the end of the table. Clutching the edges of the tray in either hand, he carefully walked to the station for dirty dishes and carefully placed his cutlery in one tub, the dishes in another and his tray in the stack already present. Then he turned back and walked directly towards the imposing figure towering over the table of his friends. Masayoshi seemed slightly thrown by the look he was getting as the figure approached. Mainly because a thick wedge of black cloth had been wound tightly around his upper face, dipping either side of his nose and reaching up to the edges of his curly hair. By all rights, he should have been blind but each soundless footstep in the growing ring of silence was unerringly placed in his direction until they stopped just before reaching him.

"What do you want," Glaring into the thick cloth, Masayoshi leant in close. "Freak?" In jerky, tense movements, the silent man reached up his left hand and touched the front of his right shoulder for a moment before lowering his arm again.

"A strong word. What do you call serial womanisers with a penchant for escorts?" A kaleidoscope of colours flashed through Masayoshi's face as the pale man slid past and whispered something in his ear. Quiet laughter continued to echo around the nearby tables at the insult, hushed by the infuriated glare that came in response.

"Maybe he says 'Good morning'." An unidentified voice came from the crowds and brought up another wave of laughter as Masayoshi picked up an apple from Vlado's tray and threw it at with an overwhelming rage coursing through him. In his angered mind, the apple would splatter across the retreating back and restore his reputation. Reality had the man turning suddenly to a nearby door as the apple soared onwards to explode against a nearby wall. Already embarrassed and spoiling for a fight, Masayoshi turned back to the table in time for Koharu to clamber back into her robotic body and flex her grip pointedly. Against the better ideals of society on fighting, Akiza was instantly fond of her fellow outcasts for standing up to the man.

"Might I recommend taking a seat back at your own table?" Smiling tightly, Akiza stirred her food and let the smell of fish, onion and rice waft across her face. "I think you might find the company more to your liking." With the other three around the table suddenly looking a lot more dangerous, Masayoshi had little choice other than to jerkily saunter back to his table.

"Sorry about Masayoshi." By the time the apple arrived, the man had fallen silent again and Koharu could resume her conversation with Akiza.

"Don't worry about it." The congealing fish was still tasty enough to lessen the anger she was feeling. "I studied with plenty of people like that in medical college. They think money lets them do whatever they want." Not a single word of disagreement followed in the growing silence. "Hey, who was the other guy just now?" An uneasy air settled across the table and looks were exchanged.

"Obake." It was an effort to pull that much out.

"I thought he didn't get out of the tunnels much." There was that something again, the same strangeness that Yusei had regarding the young man. "How did you meet him?" Again, looks were exchanged and there was the sort of mental conversation that excluded outsiders. Eventually, a consensus was reached and the story began to unfold.

"It might be hard to understand but we're not exactly the popular people." She began.

"Lies!" Chirruped Chiyoko as Tom mocked falling into a dead faint. Koharu spared them a despairing glance before turning back to Akiza.

"You probably know how it goes. Everybody here has their own little circles of friends. Seating isn't exactly fixed but nobody eats with people outside their little cliques." Looking about the room that had calmed from the humiliation of Masoyoshi, Akiza could see what was present in every food hall across the world. Even in banquet tables, nobody was really forced out but some were either ignored or relegated into the background. "Tom's an American who grew up all over, Chiyoko and Valdo are a package deal nobody likes the package of and I built a robotic exoskeleton to make use of a lot of the equipment. Accounting isn't ready to stuff in my size just yet." And where did the outcasts get given? The least desirable positions available e.g. near the bins and dirty dishes. "Din and Haruka generally join us as well. I mean, Haruka's normal enough but people tend to get irritated by how she's always smiling."

"What? People don't like Haruka _smiling_?" Such a concept was alien to Akiza. She loved working with a team that was ready to grin when times got tough.

"Constantly. Anyway, we just all drifted together on the only table nobody really wanted. Obake was here first but didn't object when we moved in." Another look spread between them and cut Akiza from an instantaneous debate.

"What is it now?" Scary little smiles started spreading around the table.

"Maybe there's something you could clear up for us." Making a little gesture with her hands, she crowded in the rest of the group and lowered her voice to a conspirational whisper. "Are you really staying at Yusei's house?"

"What? I, er." Suddenly sensing a bloodlust of people hunting for gossip, Akiza failed to switch gears from the mystery of Obake to the privacy of her own personal life. "Yes, no. I mean, sort of." Colour started rising in her cheeks at the unexpected question.

"Is it true he has an adorable little kitten?" Against the hard edge lurking beneath her pretty face, Chiyoko looked smitten with the idea of Yusei's cat.

"Adorable is the last word I'd use." Thin lines of scabs covered her legs where the tiny cat had been savaged her trousers the night before.

"How's the sex?" A disturbingly familiar stench wafted over them all as Din slammed his tray down the other side of Koharu and clambered into Obake's abandoned seat. "What?" Koharu was giving him a glare strong enough to cut through even his indifference.

"Try asking anything that personal again and I'll give you a beating strong enough to fix your ugly mug." Digging a serving spoon into his pile of rice and fish, Din crammed it down through his fighting grin as Akiza tried to reclaim her dignity.

"I'll have your head on a platter before you can even get into that walking scrap heap of yours." Rising to her natural height on the table, Koharu looked down at her fellow dwarf with fury on her face.

"Bring it. I can take you." Dragging her voluntary protector back towards her seat, Akiza tried to soothe the mood.

"My money's on Din." With the eyes of a gambler, Tom was quick to pick his wager and rile the mood back up.

"Koharu." Chiyoko seemed as bitten by the bug as Vlado caught onto the conversation and hulked up to imitate Din.

"Look, Yusei and I are just friends." Placing a hand on Koharu's shoulder, she waited until the mood had calmed again before letting go. "And Din, for the record, Koharu could totally take you." She had waited until he was shovelling food again before delivering the insult and was rewarded with an outraged splutter as he inhaled a solid block of rice. "I'm only staying at Poppo Time until I can sort out my own place."

"I have a comfy couch. Not that I would ever dream of letting a guest sleep on it," Leaning onto the table with an enchanting smile, Tom unleashed a powerful wave of charm. "You can have my room. I don't mind slumming it for as long as you need." Good natured jeering forced him to back down. Though full of swagger, Tom had a playful nature about him that gave the impression not to take him seriously.

"I've got a spare room if you ever need a place to crash." Delivering a few final insults, Koharu continued to pick at her food. "Nothing extravagant but hey," Winking salaciously, she whistled across the table at Tom. "Better than lover boy's bedbugs." As the pair started to bicker, Vlado managed to convey that he and Chiyoko had a small apartment with a bedroom each and no room for another. Din was probably fine sleeping beneath a bush and didn't bother trying to contribute anything to the conversation.

Despite the weird nature of her companions and direct rudeness of Din, Akiza felt at home amidst the weirdest people the SRC had to offer. Of all the hundreds of members in the facility, nobody had attempted to enter Din's lab until Koharu invited her to lunch. It was only after the others had seen she was a normal human being that they had tried to swoop in and 'save' her. A dwarf in a robot body, the angriest man she had ever met, a quiet girl with pale hair, her mute partner from Croatia, the flirtatious admiral's son with a criminal history and the Psychic Duellist with a healing touch. They might have been an odd lot but Akiza felt they would be the strongest group around.

Yet something still troubled Akiza. It might be that Obake was something of an unorthodox enigma to their group but there was no direct connection to Yusei. As far as she knew, he probably didn't even know her new friends existed beyond the scope of a few reports and some files. Which begged the question: how and why did he know Obake well enough to be uneasy? Like a dog with a bone, there were some puzzles Akiza would gnaw at until she got her answer.


	12. Luggage

It was insane. It was impossible. It was about time to drop the hypothetical Hippocratic Oath and trade blows. "I'm telling you." Standing on a stool, Din was smacking his hand on the worktop to emphasise every word. "An open cranium biopsy is the logical next step." Akiza had to resist the urge to throw something at her charge. Or throw her charge back into the corridor.

"Slicing open the skull would take more time than you simply letting me have a holographic display set up." Several heads were poking around the corner of the door. It was unusual to hear Dr Din argue with anybody. Demand, threaten and intimidate, yes. To argue implied he was open to hearing another point of view. It was unnatural.

"And risk losing all that data to a damn insect?" Noticing one of the heads slowly creeping further into the lab than the others, Din booted a nearby drawer in apparent rage.

"Computers have come a long way since 1947!" Seeing one gnarled hand dipping into the destroyed drawer, Akiza flashed a deadly look at the doorway. Vanishing an instant before the row of test-tubes could shatter across their collective heads, it was still possible to hear the scattered scientists whispering to one another as they fled. "Look." Breathing heavily through the innate irritation Din seemed to spread about himself like his terrible odour, Akiza strove to pin the situation to the current problem. "How about we do it this way: you ask Yusei and Ogino to arrange brain surgery on a classified patient, I'll get some projectors set up while you're gone."

It had been a long weekend. As the latest hire, Akiza had little choice as to her hours for the first few weeks. She was lucky to have avoided night hours until now but put it down to somebody trying to cosy up to the future boss. Working with Din was a temporary arrangement but was starting to feel like an endless purgatory after two sixteen hours shifts over the weekend. If she could just make it through the day, she had Tuesday and Wednesday off. A part of her wondered if Din ever stopped working but he seemed content with his blackboards, visits from his bird and shouting matches with anybody who had a different opinion.

The current argument had come up as a result of Din's archaic methods. Theory and writing were well enough up to a point but there were several dozen holographic files and videos she couldn't play on the small screen. It was a simple matter to get projectors installed but he was resisting the idea of adding technology to his laboratory.

"Don't try playing smart with me." Thrusting a dumpy digit in her direction, Din seemed ready to leap across the room and attack her. "I've got experience in fields you haven't even heard of."

"Then _logically_ explain to me why our research is being hindered by your refusal to get the equipment we need." She had him from the second word. Din was a great believer in logic and a scientist to the core. If there was any way to rile him up, it was to accuse him of being illogical. It stumped him on the rare occasion anybody was right.

"You think you're such hot stuff." There was an intense irritation clouding his smile. "When this goes wrong, it's your fault." Dropping to the ground like a sack of mud, he stumped his way into the corridor and smiled at the nearest warm body. Being on the receiving end of his smiles was like looking into the face of a god. An angry, terrifying, demanding god. "I would like some holographic projectors for my lab." The smile widened. "If anybody has any complaints, send them to see me."

"That was polite." From her angle behind him, Akiza hadn't seen the power of the smile.

"I'm turning over a new leaf." Dropping the smile, he adopted an expression of grave severity as he turned back to face her. "Expanding the boundaries of science is not something easily accomplished with angry shouting and losing my temper." Most people would have taken pity on him and given Din any help he needed. A trained psychologist might have seen past the dirty exterior to the humble man hiding within.

Akiza had been working with him long enough to know that both layers were just fronts being put up by the overwhelmingly intelligent person inside.

"Let's make some space." Though worktops ringed the side of the room to the left of the door, the right had the option of becoming open floor for the many blackboards Din used. It was usually covered in stolen books and abandoned equipment that pile higher than him but it could be cleared away. Theoretically.

Clearing up the mountains had taken them less time than Akiza would have guessed. Even in the midst of his indifference, there was a method to everything Din did. Scattered beakers and test-tubes were found delicately balanced where the contents couldn't spill, dog-eared books formed the sturdy basis of many stacks with the work on top roughly sorted into areas of research. A pair of doors at the far end of the cluttered room opened up into a roomy cupboard that held most everything they need it to and Din seemed content to move the stacks from the empty floor into the empty cupboard.

Not for the first time, Akiza recognised that the size of Din's laboratory came as equal parts reward for his achievements and much needed storage for his wide range of paraphernalia for different subjects.

If he was honest – and not just callous – Din's fondness for Akiza came not from some reminiscing for his unmentioned daughter but for recognising her as one of the few people who might be able to match his knowledge, even if in only one area. Clearing away his studies – something not done since he had entered the lab – was as much out of respect as it was to help further their research into the mystery case.

"So let me get this right." Worming his twisted fingers beneath a stack of books taller than he was, Din lifted them an inch from the floor and stomped his way into the storage cupboard before dropping them again. "We're going to use some of your illusion contraptions to watch a movie because you don't understand the case?"

"It's just to clear up a few details." It wasn't. The text files she had read through so far had been nearly useless, full of contradictions and impossible results. It was as if all sorts of information had been picked from different sources and haphazardly stitched together by somebody with only a passing understanding of human neurology. It the files hadn't come from Yusei himself, she would have smelled a rat.

"Good, right." Whenever he could throughout the week, Din had stolen glances at the research as well. Less of it was understood as he was brushing up on his neurology but even the parts that made sense didn't. As far as Din was concerned, it was so much gibberish given to the new girl as a prank. Still, the holograms might clear things up. "Almost done then?" This last part was directed at the small crew of workers still fussing around the open space. Last time anybody had tried so much as changing a light, Din had lurched from a cupboard and bit an ankle after waking from a nap and thinking he was under attack.

Getting them back into the lab had taken some doing and a few substantial bribes from shadowy sources. Once the job was finally accepted, the best technicians the SRC had on hand scrambled to get to Din's lab. Partly for the extortionate bribes and partly to avoid angering him more than normal. Bare minutes after arriving, the small squadron had attached eight projectors to the corners of the open space and wired them into the power grid. It wasn't pretty work but it did work.

"Well," Hissing backwards through her teeth in the universal trade-sign of 'this is going to cost a lot of money', the lead technician tried to ignore the itching growing beneath her combat boots. Red lights glowed in the corners of the room to indicate something was still amiss. "It's in and installed but there might be some power fluctuations and you'll have to find someone to register it in the system." As if the words carried some magical power, the red lights on the eight boxes turned green. "Huh, looks like one of my guys is working overtime. That'll about do it then." Noticing the shabby drawers, dead bulbs and dripping taps around the laboratory, professional senses itched almost as hard as her ankles. "I don't suppose anything else needs touching up?"

"Not right now." Baring his teeth in a drooling grin, Din slowly edged closer. "Maybe after I've had a bite to eat." In a display of speed rarely seen outside magic shows, the crew vanished down the hallways with tools spilling from their clutched boxes.

"What was that about?" Trying not to think words like 'cannibalism', Akiza pulled her tablet from back out of the cupboard and went about connecting to their new system.

"I have no idea." Acting sweet and innocent, Din clambered onto a stool beside the central workstation and leaned against the table in a low slouch. "So how does this thing work? Do we need to, whoa." Although he knew holograms existed, Din had never been near one so complicated. "That's really something."

It was a three-dimensional recording of a human brain expanded to the size of a small car. Areas were lit up based on the activity and stood in frozen sparkles. It wasn't solid either, but as if a myriad of spiderwebs had been overlapped until a tangled mess of brain matter that could be seen the entire way through. From the minimal activity she could see, Akiza came to the determination the patient was close to sleep at the start of the recording.

"Lazy bastard's taking a nap." In his own way, it appeared Din had come to the same conclusion. "Can you make it do other stuff?" She could. There were layers for physical changes, synaptic scarring and even an infra-red spectrum overlay. As the synaptic activity was the primary filter, she went with her gut and chose not to change it just yet.

"Let's just watch for now." As the hologram started playing, a complex list of details appeared in the down the right side on four edges of an imaginary cube. The phrase 'NREM 1' appeared at the top, proving this was a recording approaching sleep.

Little happened for the first ten minutes. NREM 1 was only technically sleep. A person in this stage still holds some awareness of their surrounding and is still conscious but 'drifting' or drowsy. Muscles spasm slightly as the body tests how ready it is or how much it needs sleep.

After another twenty minutes passed, Din began rummaging around in his many cabinets for anything edible. A packet of expired biscuits served his purposes well enough and the logician calmly squatted on his chair and started cramming the biscuits into his mouth, heedless of the crumbs falling across the floor. By the time he was mid-way through the packet, the display had changed into 'NREM 2'.

NREM 2 was where the sleeper becomes harder to wake and brain waves start to change. It functions generally as a stopping point between being truly asleep and simply being drowsy.

As the clock ticked over into an hour, the excitement of learning about a new condition was wearing thin.

"Not to burst your bubble." After the packet of biscuits, Din had found half a sandwich and eaten that too. "But some people tend to sleep for eight hours." Although she wanted to be through, watching eight hours of a sleeping brain was not the best way to use their time.

"This condition – whatever it is – supposedly manifests during REM sleep." It was the fourth and deepest stage of sleep, accounting for roughly a quarter of the total time. Some people referred to it as the 'paradoxical stage' because the sleeper had almost waking levels of brain activity even though they were hardest to rouse at this point. "Hang on." Flicking through the controls on her tablet, she managed to locate a labelled timeline. NREM 3 was still a good way off and REM lying on the other side it. Dragging the slider down the timeline, she dropped it shortly before the exit of NREM 3. In the clear area of the room, the hologram flickered and resolved into a fresh image. "Okay, let's watch from here."

For another thirty minutes, little happened. The title changed over from 'NREM 3' to 'REM' without much incident as the brain went about normal patterns. An hour passed without much incident – other than Din realising maybe the old sandwich hadn't been a good idea – and Akiza's attention began to drift as the patterns continued to fizzle and swirl for another hour. She was on the verge of giving up on the entire project when it finally happened. It was actually easier to notice it when she wasn't paying full attention than if she had.

REM sleep tends to have patterns in the brain activity. Not exactly predictable but like a beat in a dance club – sometimes changing but regular over short periods. As she watched, the patterns continued to change and whirl faster than they should have. It wasn't a particularly dangerous condition but it could cause some problems if left untreated.

"Are you seeing this?" Snorting himself upright, Din rubbed the tired grim from his eyes.

"'Course." Flicking a glance from the corner of his eye, he knew she hadn't fallen for his deception. There would be other chances later. "Not that impressive. Try quantum tunnelling after getting pissed for four days – that will make the sparks fly." Strange scientist antics aside, the image continued to change at an increasing pace. Within minutes, it was as if lightning was coursing through the organ in some twisted Frankenstein experiment.

"This is," There were two ways to finish that thought. The analytical part of her brain voted 'fascinating'. Humanity overrode that decision with an emotional "Horrifying."

"Of all the things I've seen in my life," Waddling into the middle of the hologram, Din watched it fizzle around his body as the recording continued to play out. "This is easily one of the sickest." Waving his arms like an unstable baboon, he enlarged the picture as much as he could without losing anything to contact with the physical boundaries of the room before clambering back onto his stall in a hurry.

Neurons flashed and sparked, synapses flared and twinkled. Every inch of the holographic organ was being stretched to the utmost limits of what it could do. It continued to accelerate, the picture phasing back to an overview as no further interaction was detected. Lights flickered and whirled, entire sections flashed bright light so many parts of a strobe light. Then it all surged at once and laid seemingly dormant. After several tense seconds, a normal pattern returned.

"I've never even heard of anything like this." Watching the regular patterns of a waking mind as the hologram fizzled away, Akiza tried to make sense of what she had been watching.

"Yeah, but did see the same thing I did?" Lying sideways in what he thought was a seductive pose, Din gave a professional pout. "It all went off at once. You're the neurologist but I reckon that would be pretty painful."

"Painful. Euphoric. Everything at once." Slowing the display as much as she could, Akiza watched the final moments again. "Here." Stopping the hologram in the right place, it was possible to see every inch of the brain flaring with light. "It's just an instant but everything's going all at once. Heartbeat should stop as it tries to adjust, lungs stop breathing, blood pressure all over the place. It's a miracle if an eyeball doesn't pop out and explode." Sliding the images past again, the room darkened under the hologram as all activity shutdown. "Now, this is the interesting part. There isn't _any_ synaptic activity. When somebody dies, there's usually an attempt by the brain to actually reboot. Low-gamma waves should spike in an effort to get things going again but there isn't anything." Forward again, right up to the first mystical sparks flaring back. "Now here," Squinting as hard as he dared, Din picked out the three areas that lit up first.

"Amygdala, prefrontal cortex and the Akiza-campus." An unamused glance forced his professional side to amend the statement. "Hippocampus. Hiding somewhere on the far side of your flabby backside." Ignoring the instinctive slight, he lent in closer. "Emotional centre, decisions on emotions and the emotional memory processor?"

"Essentially." Each area had a myriad of other functions but he had picked up on the same thread she had. "Our patient is almost dead until something sparks inside his memory. Powerful enough to almost _will_ himself back to life." She tried to figure out what could be so vitally important to constantly undergo this process for years on end.

"Trust me." A haunted look entered his eyes. "That's not easy." Heaving himself upright, Din crept closer to the edge of the worktop and waved his hands in a deeply mystical fashion.

"What are you trying to do?" Not eager to earn the wrath of his anger, Akiza tried not to sound too befuddled.

"Can we take it back a bit?" Grabbing the tablet, Akiza wound the footage backwards until he raised an imperious arm as they reached the dark period of the footage. "How slow can you make this go?" It was astounding footage. There were hundreds of frames to each second of holographic footage. The total file space was staggering.

Jumping ahead by ten frames at a time, they watched the slow footage pass at an even slower rate. "Back a bit." Jumping back a few seconds, Akiza waited for the next command. "Take it as slow as you can." Moving at only one frame every few seconds, she tried to see what he had seen. "There." He had her pause it just as the activity started back up.

"What about it?" As far as she could see, it was just the same pattern of emotional choice as the first time they had watched the footage.

"Is there a brain above that flabby bottom?" Biting her tongue, she watched him grab a slate from the side and scribble a lengthy chemical formula across it. It quickly became clear what he was aiming at.

"Neurotransmitter delay." It was an often quoted mistake that the brain processes information at the speed of light. Though the brain did essentially operate on electrical charges stimulating cells, the synaptic transfer lowered the total speed to less than a thousandth of light at it's fastest.

"Right. See the problem now?"

"I do." Tapping her ear, she tried not to jump to any conclusions. "Abi. Are there any other brain scans like the one I'm using now on the tablet?"

" _Searching._ " As part of the project, Yusei had given Abi the access codes to Akiza's tablet. Nobody else was capable of using it beyond the three of them.

"That the weird computer thing?" Being the backwards man he was, Din had only heard of the computer interface second-hand from often terrified sources.

"Yeah, she's really useful sometimes." Seven files pinged up on the tablet screen Akiza still held. "Abi, can you check them for any similar lack of neurological activity?" Din caught up with her idea instantly.

" _Similar periods of neurological activity detected._ "

"Sync up the last second of minimal activity and overlay." Subtle differences appeared in the holographic brain but it was still fairly clear. "Progress forward at one frame every second starting ten frames before neurological activity returns."

"I take it back." Several seconds went by without any difference. "Maybe you do have a brain in there." Focussing on the images, neither scientist paid any particular attention to the compliment. "There." Stopping the image again, they both crept almost inside the hologram.

"How many people know about this?" For the first time since she had known him, Din sounded worried. "We might need some help on this one."

"You, me, Ogino, Yusei and a few other doctors. Who're you going to call?" There was a trace of panic in her voice.

"Maybe a physicist, maybe a chemist, maybe a priest." It didn't sound like he was joking but Din had a warped sense of humour.

There is a problem-solving principle known as Occam's Razor. It states that when dealing with competing hypothetical answers, following the one with fewer assumptions usually bears more fruit. In essence, what is simple is probably true.

It was true that the brain operated relatively slow due to the chemical transmitters needed for it to function.

It was true that three related areas of the brain were activating in what was almost certainly a connected manner.

It was true that all eight recordings could have potentially missed the original synaptic transmission to start the process.

It was also true they both had a little voice of doubt in the back of their heads whispering " _Yes, but what if?_ " and leaving the question unfinished.

"Dr Izinski?" It might have been an hour since the door had closed but neither of them could actually remember doing so. It was open now, three people standing in the hallway just outside.

"Yes, yes." Hurriedly closing off the program, she shut down the holograms as Din continued trying to acclimate to the new information. "I'm sorry, can I help you?" Two of the figures were heavily padded guards infrequently seen roaming the SRC in case anything untoward happened. The other appeared to be a perfectly normal woman, dressed in work trousers and a smart jacket. She didn't appear to be a member of the SRC.

"We managed to locate your luggage." Wheeling behind her in one hand was the thick travel bag Akiza had begun doubting she might never see again.

"Thank you, thank you so much." She was overcome with such joy at that moment there was a good chance Din could have scored a kiss.

"We're just sorry that it took so long to find." Meeting Akiza midway across the room, she palmed across the handle. "There was a problem with the identification code. We had to track it manually." Instinct began pulling at the back of Akiza's mind as she hefted the bag onto a stool and began rummaging around for the padded folded she had tucked between a thick winter jacket.

"That sounds like a lot of work for one bag." Gripping the document wallet tight in one hand, she turned to the bland brunette face. It was unremarkable in every way and that wasn't an accident. "Who did you say you worked for?

"Oh, it was no problem for us." Checking that Din was still staring at the wall in rapt attention, she mouthed a single word that only Akiza saw. "Have a lovely day." She turned with a cheerful smile and was escorted away before Akiza could break through her shock.

"Yusei." Hitting her earpiece almost hard enough to lodge it in her ear, she forced herself not projectile across the room.

" _Akiza? What is it?_ " It had been almost a decade. She had honestly thought that maybe it was finally over.

"Some woman just dropped my bag off. She said," Noticing Din stirring from his reverie, she lowered her voice and backed into a corner. "Yusei, she said she was from Yliaster." A moment's silence preceded the rush of static as he sighed down the line.

" _I'm sorry you found out this way._ " Akiza's heart jumped into her throat and lodged itself there.

"Found what out?" Something clattered on his desk at the far end of the line.

" _They weren't supposed to contact any of you. We agreed._ " Akiza could hardly breathe. In the space of minutes, she had gone from on top of the world to somewhere deep underneath it. " _I've been working with Yliaster for six years._ "


	13. Discovery

Though New Domino City didn't know it, it was in terrible danger. Not from war, famine or disease but a walking natural disaster known as Akiza.

She was mad. She was hurt. If a pack of Duel Monster cards found their way into her hands, she was in danger of unleashing the Black Rose all over again.

" _I've been working with Yliaster._ "

As soon as Yusei had said those words, she had instantly fled the SRC. With a bag containing most of her possessions already firmly in hand, she had rushed back to Poppo Time to collect the few items she didn't have. By the time Yusei was leaving his office for the night, Akiza had already left the house for what she felt would be the last time.

Koharu had taken her in without question. Though a bit shorter than most people, her apartment in the middle of the city was surprisingly spacious and what had been described as a comfy couch actually pulled out into a double bed. Akiza had more or less crawled in and slept for about thirty hours.

" _For six years._ "

That was the final nail in the coffin. If it had been a recent development, she might have understood the need for secrecy. Even the arrangement where they wouldn't contact any of the others would have made sense. But for six years? There was no reason she could think of that could explain why he wouldn't have told them.

A small part of her wanted to reach out to Jack and Crow for help but she found herself unable to pick up the phone. What if he had told them but not her? What if he hadn't told anybody and she broke the news? It was impossible to see a way forward.

Keys rattling against the door preceded Koharu walking through it. She had been understanding of Akiza in the way only women seem able to pull off. No pushing, prodding or interrogation. Just patience and a friendly shoulder if it was needed. Of course, she also knew when was too long and Akiza seemed on the verge of descent into a modern-day hermit with her nest the spare bed.

"Ready to talk about it?" Lumbering her frame into the corner, she levered open the front and clambered down. It was a highly efficient design, using the movement to recharge the internal capacitors and only needed recharging one night a week. "Because you're starting to smell like it." After the first ten hours of sleep, Akiza had become what the polite people called 'fragrant'. By the time Koharu came home, she was ready to compare Akiza to Din in terms of smell.

"How well do you know Yusei?" Pulling the duvet up over her knees, she hugged them to her chest. "Personally, I mean." Pausing in the act of getting a drink, Koharu considered the question.

"One-to-one? Not that much. We spoke a few times about my work and the tin can in the corner." Truth be told, Yusei had been fascinated by the genius invention Koharu had created. Few people saw past her stature but he had only been interested in the mechanical workings of the device, regardless of the function. It had been a strange conversation, Koharu explaining how she had come to the conclusions and designs she had, Yusei hanging to her every word. "He's great with all the staff but there's not really enough time for us all to get more than a few minutes. Why?" Gripping the stem of a wine glass in her hand like a dagger, she turned to stare at the sullen figure in the bed. "Did he _do_ something?"

"What? _No._ " Realising she was saying the wrong things, Akiza floundered for the right ones. "It's just, we used to be close. Really close. Then I moved to Germany and I mean," She shrugged helplessly. "I thought we were doing okay, even with the distance. We all text, emailed and called when we could." Finally finding a perfect cover, she leaned out into the open. "Has anyone ever told you something so at odds with everything you knew about them?" Carefully trickling a small amount of wine into her glass, Koharu sniffed it like a season connoisseur before downing the whole thing in one.

"Did Yusei tell you he was gay?" That nugget sent lightning through her muscles as Akiza almost leapt clean through the ceiling.

"He's _gay_?" It wasn't that she had anything against gays but having been in a previous (albeit it forgotten by him) relationship with Yusei, she was too shocked at the news to be angry at his partnership with Yliaster.

"That's the rumour." Tipping a more generous portion of wine into her glass, Koharu walked over and situated herself on the coffee table she usually kept by the sofa. "For a while, he used to do these charity date things. Whoever bid the highest amount got to have dinner with the most eligible bachelor in the city." This was not something Yusei had ever discussed with the rest of his friends. "No discrimination at all but after a few more 'generous' ladies," Volumes of innuendo in her tone indicated she wasn't talking about donation money. "Yusei announced he was going to stop doing them. No real reason why."

"Oh." Breathing more normally now, she could throw a few shots into the dark. Maybe he had liked one of his delightful dinners more than the rest and decided to keep things going. Maybe he had stopped the dinners on order from Yliaster. "That's okay then." Reading between the lines, Koharu zeroed in with the intensity of a hawk.

"Lover's quarrel?" Even though she was the only one with an actual drink, Akiza managed to cough and splutter on nothing more than empty air.

" _NO!_ " It came out a bit louder than she had intended but the spots dancing in her eyes were also clogging up her hearing.

"Ah, he rejected you?" Sipping her wine in a gloating fashion, Koharu was making it almost impossible to live with.

"No, nothing like that." Gnawing on a thumb nail, she tried to think about what she could tell Koharu without endangering her newest friend. "It was more... political than that." Arching an eyebrow, Koharu managed to make even the bland excuse salacious. "We had some fundamentally different views is all. I thought we should have some space and let things cool off." In reality, she was going to step up her apartment hunt and find somewhere else to live as soon as she could. She couldn't trust Yusei now that she knew he worked with Yliaster.

"What about at the SRC?" It was a good point that Koharu had raised. In public, she and Yusei were private citizens capable of living entirely separate lives. At work, she was only two steps lower on the ladder and too important to be simply removed or leave at a moment's notice. With proof of her qualifications now firmly back in her possession, getting another job would be far easier than it had been previously.

"We'll just have to figure out a way to deal with things." Dread entered her mind and face as she instantly uncovered a problem.

"What is it?" Covering her horrified face, Akiza wondered how she could have possibly missed it until now. Maybe it had something to do with the two day pity-fest she had been in.

"I left my badge back in my room." In her haste to get changed and leave, she had left the slim plastic card on the small dresser. "There's no way to get into the SRC without it." Her tour with Ogino had been by virtue of the elder lady carrying high enough clearance to allow the guest at her side. Without a card of her own, Akiza would be 'escorted' out by the security details.

"You're sure?" Koharu had been around long enough to see employees try to get about without their cards. It was never a pretty sight. "Maybe you just packed it in the wrong bag?"

"I remember." Reaching out her hands, Akiza could picture the movements. "It was as I was changing my shirt. I took it out of my pocket and placed it on the dresser." And when she had put on a clean shirt, she had forgotten to pick it back up. A silly, simple mistake.

"Do you want me to go and get it?" Although she hadn't even had an entire glass of wine, the alcohol packed a much tighter punch to her compact form. Speaking in the purely technical form, to walk about in the support unit charging in the corner would probably count as drunk driving.

"No." Finally coming around to her twisted reality, Akiza was welcomed by the intense smell she was ashamed to realise she was giving off. "First, I'm going to take a shower. Then a bath," She wrinkled her nose as the smell really started registering. "Followed by another shower. As for the card, I'll go back later. Hopefully, he'll be working in his office or asleep in his bed. Either way, I wont be seeing Yusei tonight." Amongst Akiza's many talents was a distinct lack of fortune telling.

* * *

Nearing midnight, she was counting the time she had left to get some sleep in minutes rather than hours. All the lights in Poppo Time were out, there wasn't any sign Yusei was still awake. Trying not to feel too much like a thief in the night, she unlocked the door and slid inside.

Gentle moonlight illuminated the empty garage on the bottom floor. Just as when she had left, it was mostly tidy but for a few scattered odds and ends. Unless a thief was particularly clumsy, there was little way for them to be discovered. Creeping the first few steps towards the stairs leading to the middle floors, she tried to remember which floorboards squeaked slightly and which didn't. It had been one of the tips Crow had taught her to getting about unheard years ago. She had never imagined she would need it to break into Poppo Time. Leaning on the handrails as much as she dared, Akiza almost dragged herself up the stairs.

Fate was not kind to her. Almost as soon as her gaze raised above the level of the floor, she spied upon the distinctive white fur of Hoshi huddling outside Yusei's door. The tiny cat hadn't really entered her mind in recent days. She was either at work or the cat was absent. Both worked as Hoshi had an irritating habit of darting out and savaging her ankles. This time, the cat rose on trembling paws and began a pitiful whine as she pawed at Yusei's door.

Frantically trying to cross the communications barrier with waving hands to indicate that she didn't want to be found, Akiza almost ran past the cat to reach what had once been Crow's room. It was empty again, all her clothes and belongings slung in the two travel cases stored back at Koharu's. The only indication that she had borrowed the room at all was in the form of her SRC identity card lying haphazardly on the dresser where she had left it. Pocketing the card, she opened the drawers to find the last few piles of clothes she hadn't managed to fit into the bag. Her father's generous shopping trip had almost been for naught as most of the outfits had been replacements for the ones returned with her luggage.

Carelessly sweeping the few remaining items into a bag, Akiza took a minute to carefully look for anything else she might have left behind the last time she had packed up. A few stray pieces of litter in the small bin was all that remained this time. Turning with a heavy heart, she froze at the unpleasant site that greeted her – Hoshi standing with bristled fur in the doorway.

Under normal circumstances, she would have stepped around the cat and tried to make a quick exit. Even her window would have been a preferable alternative to the feline in a vicious mood. Something stopped her though. Hoshi didn't look angry or territorial. More like... frightened? It wasn't ordinary fear, she could have just left at any time. Giving another pitiful whine, she trotted back to the doorway and looked expectantly at Akiza.

There are countless tales of dogs instructing humans to follow them but Akiza couldn't recall any where the animal in question was of the feline persuasion. Without many other options, she followed Hoshi out into the corridor and watched as she pawed at the door to Yusei's room again. Thinking it was probably that Hoshi wanted to sleep in his room, Akiza thought nothing of quietly opening the door enough for the creature to slip through. Curiosity might have been sated for the cat but it was impossible for the doctor to walk away without taking even a small glimpse beyond the wooden barrier of the door. What she saw changed her life forever.

It had been some time since she had entered Yusei's room. It was the little changes that stood out. The desk had been moved to beside the door, the cabinet had been placed beside it to make room for the double-bed under the window. A few boxes of files had changed, there was a few extra photos of his friends. Ah yes, and the extensive remodelling.

Sound-absorbent padding lined every inch of the room, enough medical equipment to sate a small medical ward was crammed into the available space. Beeps and whirs formed a chaotic symphony as they measured their patient in more ways than was normal but their patient was far from normal. For one thing, Yusei was physically tied to the bed with thick padded restraints and screaming loud enough to wake the dead.

Dropping her small bag of belongings, she leapt across the room as he entered the throes of convulsions. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have had an orderly restrain his legs and induce a mild sedative. But Yusei seemed dead to the world, ignorant of the bellows of pain he was unleashing past a thick mouth-guard. Only a mountain of pillows and cushioning was keeping his skull from smashing against or even through his bed and doing permanent damage.

A particularly strong convulsion arched his entire body at once, knocking Akiza into the cabinet with a grunt of pain. Noises from the many machines reached a screaming crescendo, fell silent then began beeping in panic as they failed to find anything to monitor.

Regaining her footing, Akiza began chest compressions, struggling to come to grips with the situation as her medical training simply kicked in and took over. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Even as the count started going higher than she had ever gone before, nothing happened. Two slipped into four and Akiza froze as the burden beneath her palms seemed too heavy for even the best doctors in the world to heal.

Then Yusei's eyes shot open with a glassy stare. Tearing his right arm free from the restraint, he shoved Akiza to one side, reached as far as he could beneath the bed and vomited a stream of bloody bile into the tub he dragged back out.

Wafts of sickly ammonia filled the room as the various machines calmed back down into regular rhythms. Akiza stayed exactly where she was, trying to grasp the information her senses were giving her.

For the longest time, she just lay there as Yusei drained his stomach into the bucket. Finally, he flopped back onto the stack of cushions and pillows, staring at the wall beyond his feet.

"You have a lot of questions." His voice was dreadfully weak, far removed from the power and authority that protected his city and guided the SRC. Standing back upright, Akiza saw how pale he was, the sores tearing apart inside his mouth, bruises spreading across his body from where muscles had stretched and torn.

"What's wrong with you?" She wasn't quite ready to accept the truth. It was too impossible to think of the strong man she had found hiding in his office from her anger as the same one lying in the bed before her.

"Come to my office before your shift starts." Reaching up to the small ledge by the window, he dragged down a large cup of water to sooth the ragged flesh in his throat. "I'll tell you everything I can." Exhausted by the small conversation, he fell back against the pillows and instantly drifted into a slow doze.


	14. Secrets

It was unsurprising that Akiza hadn't slept much that night. Partly down to her two days of near-constant rest and mostly because of the tumultuous storm of emotions regarding Yusei. Before the sun had even risen, she was already well on her way to the SRC in an effort to get answers as soon as she could.

Few people tend to walk the streets at six in the morning. It's a quiet hour, the night-shifts winding up their activities, the day-walkers not yet up and about. She could have taken public transport – free for being classed as a city servant – but chose a brisk walk instead as Koharu's flat was less than twenty minutes from the extensive grounds of the Scientific Research Centre.

Even when the rest of city slept, many lights still sparkled from the tall buildings in the midst of the clockwork pattern of open space. Scientists tired from staying up too late or getting up too early drifted around the grounds like ghouls held upright by scientific enquiry and vast amounts of caffeine. It was only as she headed down the path towards Building Eight that familiar instincts began rising on the back of her neck. Every time she turned around, she knew nobody was following her. Only a few trees cluttered the open space between the centre of the SRC and the outer buildings. Yet still, she couldn't help but feel there was something following her. As she approached the thick doors, a glimmer of a pale reflection caught her eye in the shape of a distorted face. Nearing panic, she slammed against the door and pushed as hard as she dared.

Whatever technical trickery Yusei had done to the door last time she tried entering Building Eight had been undone and her I.D. was enough to let her in. With the doors firmly closed behind her, she looked out over the view and tried not to let tales of ghosts fill her mind. Once she was as sure as she could be that nothing was following her, she turned and headed for the elevators behind her.

As she rode the lift, Akiza tried to still her beating heart. Coming back to New Domino had been harder than she expected but the biggest hurdle was still ahead of her. If Yusei didn't have good reasons for everything that had happened in recent days, she would cut her losses and simply leave again. With her documents back in hand, it would be easier to prove her credentials and get another job elsewhere.

When the lift doors opened, she was surprised to see the light on in his office across the floor. Yusei had asked her to arrive before her shift started at eight but it was still earlier than she would have expected him. Walking down the narrow corridor, she kept her emotion under a tight grip. Whatever would come, would come. Taking an extra breath outside the office, she opened the door with less explosive anger than her last visits.

Sitting at his desk, Yusei looked perfectly normal. If she hadn't seen his screaming fit the night before, she wouldn't have believed it had even happened. A cup of steaming coffee sat on his desk, he was wearing a crisp white shirt and staring absently at his computer. Other than the slightly damp hair, it was possible he had just come from a meeting about stationary budgets. Noticing her standing in the doorway, Yusei straightened up from his slight slouch and focused on the problem at hand.

"You're earlier than I expected." Fishing about for something pleasant to start the conversation with, he focused on the mug on his desk. "Would you like some coffee?" Though he and Chris would deny it, the fat chef kept his boss supplied with a private stash of grounds for use in his office. In return, Yusei turned a blind eye to the unconventionally dimensional transcendental storage facilities in the kitchen and defended the extortionate supply budget.

"Please." Crouching by the squat cabinet running beneath his window, Yusei pulled out a still bubbling kettle and spare mug. Akiza mutely sat in one of the padded chairs as he slowly made her a fresh cup and set in on the table in front of her. "Thank you." Settling in his chair, neither spoke for a minute as the caffeine did its work.

"I'm sorry." It was not the best place to start but it was the most important. "Everything that's happened, what I'm going to tell you. I did plan to tell you," A bitter note entered his voice and mingled with the taste of the coffee. "Not now, not all at once." Sighing, he put aside his cup and pulled the thick tablet he had given Akiza from his desk drawer again. "I took this from Din's lab. He wasn't too pleased because he thought he was making some progress."

"Was he?" She had heard the tired tone, like he had seen the work before somewhere.

"Not as much as I would like." Resting the tablet between them, he nudged it towards her side of the table. "I've unblocked all the files. No redactions, no restrictions. You know who your patient is anyway." Akiza did. She had since the moment she had walked in and seen him thrashing around on his bed.

"It's you." Regret filled the air as he avoided her gaze, looking past her to the far wall. "You're sick." At the words, all emotion drained from his face until it left blank despair.

"Akiza, I'm dying." Finally meeting her stare, he gave a smile that was tired in more ways than one. "I have about ten months left. Maybe a year if I get lucky." It was a brutal blow. Akiza hadn't studied the other holograms at that time but they would show signs of synaptic degradation if she compared them chronologically.

"Wait," Grasping at straws, she remembered what Yusei had told her when he first gave her the files. "You said my patient would 'take steps' in four months." Leaning back in his chair, Yusi rubbed his tired eyes.

"If no treatment is found by then, there will be too much damage to recover from." It was a brief summary of the conclusion he had drawn. The SRC had worked on and with thousands of different types of medicine. Several dozen could help repair the damage after that point but would cause considerable harm to other parts of his body. Even if a cure was found seven or eight months down the line, any treatment to restore his brain would likely kill him some other way. "At that point, I'll start making arrangements for my replacement and... passing." It was the way he said the word. Not a note of sadness for himself but only a slight pause as he tried to think of an easier way to break it to her.

"There's a lot of doctors in the world. Maybe one of them knows something." It was inevitable he had already reached out but she was going through the list anyway.

"And the best of them are just over there." Picking up his mug, he tipped it towards the main hub of the SRC. "Trust me, nobody is working on this." They sat in grim silence for a moment.

"What about Yliaster?" Checking the time on his computer, Yusei balanced telling the entire truth against only some of it.

"With everything that happened eight years ago, Yliaster was dealt a heavy blow. They weren't gone but they needed time to heal." That was putting it mildly. After Z-One had been defeated, Yliaster had almost died overnight. It had taken months to begin recovering. "For a while, Yliaster was vulnerable and there were some who tried taking advantage of that. They were foolish to do so." Even at their weakest moment, Yliaster had people in every government and enough resources to take over a country. Of the plucky few who dared tangle with the shaken organization, few lived out the week. "One of the survivors contacted me and begged for help. I reached out to Yliaster and agreed to do some work with them in exchange for sparing the lives of whoever was still alive." Checking the time again, he brutally curtailed the rest of the story. "As part of the deal, Yliaster was supposed to leave you and the others alone."

"Then why didn't they?" It had sounded like a one-sided deal. The smartest man alive lends the almost unending resources at his command to Yliaster in exchange for them leaving alone a handful of practically helpless former Signers.

"I don't know. That's why I've asked them to call me." Drawing his phone from his breast pocket, Yusei weighed the device in his hand. "If you want to leave, now is your chance." In reply, Akiza dug herself deeper into the chair and gripped her coffee cup as they waited for the call. As soon as the clock hit seven, Yusei's mobile rang. Placing the handset on the table between them, he put it on speaker.

"Good morning." It was a cultured voice, almost artificial in blandness.

"Nanashi. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me." Akiza blinked at the title. It literally translated as 'nameless'.

"You said it was urgent. Of course I would make the time." Nanashi sounded pleasant, educated. The sort of voice that made for a good politician or con-artist. "How can we help one another?" It was small but insidious. Planting the idea that Yusei had to help Nanashi for Nanashi to help him.

"I'm here with Akiza." There was a slight intake of air down the line. "Somebody from Yliaster returned her bags yesterday. I thought we had an agreement." Silence reigned around the room.

"Let me start with my congratulations for all your accomplishments, Dr Izinski." Unsure of what to say, Akiza chose to remain mute. "And I assure you, the order to not contact or interfere with any of you remains very much intact. I will personally look into it."

"Thank you." Evidentially, Yusei had not been expecting anything so forthcoming. The relationship between Yliaster and him was usually a one-way street.

"Think nothing of it." There was a power in that voice, like royalty who are accustomed to being obeyed in all things. "Consider this one on me. I will contact you in due course." A dull tone filled the room as Nanashi dropped the call.

Leaning back in his chair, Yusei slowly let out a tense breath he had been holding through the entire conversation. "For the record, Nanashi doesn't know about my condition."

Akiza was still struggling with events. It had been difficult to understand that Yusei and Yliaster had a partnership of sorts but the phone call had made it seem so... ordinary.

"What do you do for Yliaster?" It was the one thing she was still worried about. That, his condition, the shadowy organization intent on sinking claws back into her life.

"A few science problems. Nothing they couldn't get elsewhere with a bit more work." There wasn't much shame in his voice. Whatever toll the self-betrayal had demanded had been paid long ago.

For some time, they sat in silence as Akiza tried to absorb the information she had been given. Eventually, only fifteen minutes remained until her shift.

"I should probably go." Setting down her empty cup, she tried not to feel angry at Yusei. She had pity in equal amounts but anger at being deceived was the overriding emotion.

"There's a couple more things you need to know before you do." Standing upright himself, Yusei straightened his shirt. "I'll walk you to the elevator." Their footfalls were the only sounds to be heard in the quiet floor as they walked the length of the building. "I still have a blank period, a hazy gap in my memory from eight years ago." As he reached out to tap the call button, he missed the flash of instinctive panic on Akiza's face. "I remember bits and pieces but there's a lot missing. I know Musume woke me up though." As the lift doors opened, he positioned himself before the rows of buttons and waited for Akiza to stand by his side. "What I didn't know was the cost." Reaching out, he held his thumb on the button for the thirteenth floor. After a moment, the elevator started lowering down the shaft.

"What do you mean?" When the lift doors opened, Akiza was looking out over an empty floor. All the windows had been covered over with thick metal panels and the only light was from a strip-bulb above the elevator and another in the far distance. Where rooms had been routinely placed on Yusei's level, the only feature on this floor was a thick cube in the middle of it. "Yusei, what is this place?" Silently walking ahead, Yusei approached the metal box and laid his hand on the panel by the door.

"It's the safest place in the city." Once his palm-print had been verified, he typed in a long password and presented his eye to a scanner. Checks complete, the door slid inwards and over to one side. In side the cube, each wall was covered in a pattern of hexagons and scars. Several cables trailed across the floor into a reinforced socket by the door. In the precise middle of the room, a single hospital bed lay with a still occupant in a raised position.

"Who..." Sensing Yusei waiting for her to approach the patient, she quashed down her curiosity in favour of her medical instincts checking the readouts. Blood pressure, neural displays, heartbeat and even a full-body thermal view were only as far from death as a shadow was from sunlight. Less than an inch, shorter than a nanometre.

"Trudge found her." Instead of a face, the blankets had been tucked up against a shining metal plate. It was perfectly smooth and held only the barest impressions of a nose and mouth as it covered the rest of the skull in a round bulge. "After Bruno and I recovered, she collapsed on the outskirts of the city. Nobody figured out how she made it so far on so little energy. Then again," An incredibly slow beep was coming from the monitors Akiza was past noticing. "Musume always was tough."

"She's dead." Even without the quiet shrill tones of every machine, she could tell something was wrong. There wasn't any movement, breathing or signs of life. Each item in the room had some sort of presence but there was almost a void when it came to the space on the bed.

"Give it a second." Just as he finished speaking, the figure on the bed saw up with a single, sudden intake of gasping air. Limbs tightened and every joint was stretched to the fullest. What had been a vague shape of lips broke apart into a gaping jaw. Even as the figure resumed the same posture as before, Akiza was surprised to realise that she had noticed perfect teeth hidden behind the silver mask. Fresh images appeared on the screen, side-by-side with the old data. Now, they showed healthy blood pressure, high oxygen levels in the blood and even enough brain activity to rival the scans she had seen of Yusei.

"What was that?" Heart still beating fast from the shock, she backed into one of the trolleys as Yusei carefully tucked the blanket back into place.

"She does that every few hours." Checking the displays, not even a memory of surprise crossed his face at the regular scans and readings. Already faded back into her near-death state, Musume seemed completely unaware that anything had even happened. "Physically, she's in perfect form. Biologically, neurologically and even chemically, I have no idea what's going on inside her. Any invasive scans end up highly distorted." Recovering enough courage to approach the bed, Akiza took up place on the other side of the dead body. "As far as I am able to tell, her brain isn't functional, her heart beats only five times every minute and she has never... needed a toilet." There were usually complications involved in coma patients. Bed sores, possible choking once their gag reflex shuts down. Somehow, Musume was suffering none of the normal problems. She just waited on the edge of life and death with a will of diamond.

"Why is Musume even here? Shouldn't she be somewhere she can get treatment?" There were even more machines in this room than Yusei used when he fell asleep. One seemed to exist just to monitor the contents of the air alone.

"Nobody noticed her condition until Musume was almost at the morgue. Luckily, she managed to react before she got there. Trudge heard about the incident, called me. I brought her here." Slowly gripping a wrist, Akiza checked the shockingly low pulse. The slowest survivable heartbeat on record was a medically induced twenty beats per minute. How Musume was surviving at only a quarter of that was unfathomable.

Akiza was suddenly tired, exhausted. It was as if all the revelations of that morning had undone all the extra sleep she had scrounged at Koharu's. Another shift with the insufferable genius of Dr Din was the absolute last thing she wanted to do at that moment.

"That's all, right?" Rubbing her tired eyes, she fought to get them open again. "Nothing else that can change the course of history?" Noticing the fatigue, Yusei walked around the bed and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Everything else can wait." Guiding her out of the door, he sealed up the room as she leant against the thick metal barrier.

"Why the walls?" She had known them, recognised the pattern from her last attack as the Black Rose. Reinforced against any Psychic attack and wired with alarms. "Are they to keep her in or everyone else out?"

"Both." Resting against the wall on the other side of the door, Yusei hung his own weary head. "There were some incidents when she first moved here. Every time I went near her, something inside didn't like it." After a few weeks of mild starvation, he was finally able to hook up an IV drip to keep her sustained through her coma. "It took some broken ribs but I think she's warming to me."

"You talk like she's still awake in there." Turning to face her, Yusei smiled gently.

"It helps to think she is. I don't need another death on my conscience." It would take some time before he admitted it but – other than the one person who had made contact with him – Yusei had never heard from any of the other people who attacked Yliaster eight years ago. As far as he knew, his actions and sacrifice had only saved the one target. Dozens of others were probably not as lucky and even the idea of so many bodies was an insufferable idea that haunted his waking hours. "You should probably get going." Pushing himself off the wall, Yusei dulled out the pain in his muscles. It shifted and flowed every few days but he had come to ignore the pains when they come. Any bruising that could not be explained away was easily covered up with the art of make-up. "Dr Din will probably be wanting his research back."

As she began the walk back to the elevator, Akiza wondered why he had chosen _her_ to research his condition. There was probably nobody less qualified in the entire SRC to continue searching for a treatment with such a short timeline. Her only companion, Din was outspoken, brusque and at odds with everything professional. By the time she arrived back at the extensive lab with scientists already running down the corridor, she had an answer to the one question she hadn't asked: Yusei had given her the task of saving his life because there was nobody else he could trust to do so.


	15. Awakening

It was past a reasonable time for dinner and sunset had happened long ago. Most of the day staff had left for the evenings. A few of the night workers had already arrived. Since the secrecy of their work had taken a dramatic surge, Din had taken to locking the door and even the most brave or foolhardy were not risking a walk down the hallway outside. He could leave at any second and find them snooping. Strangely, they were more aware of this fact than when he had kept the door open.

Inside the laboratory, Din was scribbling equations across one of his many notebooks amidst constant mutters of corrections. In the middle of the clear space, several holograms of Yusei's brain were rotating through independent loops of their own. Doing so was drawing up valuable computing space but Din wasn't the sort to focus on such problems. To subscribe to his own peculiar methodology – if nobody was coming to tell him off, how bad could it really be?

Seated on a stool and with her nose practically clued to a textbook, Akiza was snoring her way through the medical journal. It appeared that her lack of sleep the night previously had caught up with her and simply knocked her out for the foreseeable future. Ever the stalwart professional, she had managed to push through to the last minute of her shift before the tiny switch inside her brain had flipped over and turned out the lights. That had been over five hours ago.

Turning around, Din uttered an oath so offensive that anybody who truly understood the significance might have either vomited or attacked him. Luckily, he said it in a language the target didn't speak.

"My apologises if I upset you." Standing in a corner with both hands clasped in the small of his back, Obake seemed to have literally appeared from nowhere as he gave a small bow. "Might I have a word?" Too startled to insult the pale young man again, Din noted with one eye that his jacket had been carefully spread over the slumbering Akiza.

"Where did you come from?" With the shock still throwing him off-balance, the vast genius seemed focussed on the mysterious new problem standing in front of him.

"I entered seven minutes ago." Speaking in such a soft tone, it was almost to distinguish Obake's normal voice from most people's whispers. "You told me to wait. I waited." Scratching at his beard, it seemed that Din recalled an incident of some sort. Something had momentarily disturbed his work a while back. It could have been a stray thought, possibly it had been somebody entering the room. Delving into the icy depths of scientific exploration tend to sap away at reality.

"Oh, right." Obake had a unique way of making people feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was the way he seemed to stare right at people even with both eyes hidden far behind the thick cloth covering his face. "I was busy."

"Yes," Obake stated patiently. "I know." Normally, Din would have picked up an intruder and bodily toss them through the nearest gap in concrete – door, window, same difference. But as part of his small band of less-insulted acquaintances, he was willing to stretch his patience for Obake. Besides, he had bowed to Vella on the one occasion they met. Din really loved that bird.

"What was it that you wanted?" Shuffling across the floor, he stared up at the impassive figure. Though it was warm enough in the room for the properly dressed, Obake appeared comfortable just in his white dress shirt.

"There is a substantial usage of processing power in your laboratory." Even for a formal language like Japanese, Obake stretched politeness and precision to the extreme. "I wondered if you would require a long-term use of such resources." Flicking his eyes to the rows of holograms, Din said nothing at first. Strictly speaking, only four people should be allowed to see them and Obake probably wasn't on that list.

"Could be useful." Tilting his head slightly as he looked at the diminutive figure by his knees, Obake's mouth twitched on his right side.

"It shall be done. Is Dr Izinski undertaking some sleep experiment or is she simply tired?" Edging between the pair of young adults, Din managed to ripple his prominent muscles in a more passive display of strength than was his usual way.

"Dunno, none of your business." Glaring at the man, it was clear that the situation had become strained. Din didn't like to share what little he had, be it friends or research. Both were vitally important to him.

"There would appear to be an incident underway in Building Eight. I would enter myself but the building seems to be in lockdown." That wasn't a phrase heard often at the SRC. Lockdown had several settings: biological, security, hostage and protective were the four most well-known.

Biological was for the rare event that an incident resulted in a contaminant possibly spreading. Staff were put through rigorous decontamination and any possible organism destroyed. It happened on the are occasion somebody broke a test-tube and had to reset their research. No exceptions could be made and the one attempt had resulted in an entire team being banned from research the world over.

Security lockdowns were more common. In the event that somebody was suspected of stealing or tampering with research, the building they were in would be closed off – physically and electronically – from the outside world whilst an investigation was conducted. Even though the SRC shared much of it's research, some private companies still wanted to make money by appropriating the research before it could be published and claiming it for their own. Even so, the vetting processes were so careful that it had only happened three times since the SRC had been fully operational.

Hostage was almost the exact opposite. For security reasons, Yusei had been pressured into what he could do if there was ever a hostage situation in his facility. His solution had been simple – lock the scientists in and open up a clear path for anybody out. All doors would be lock unless they presented a clear path to leave by. Luckily, they had never had the opportunity to use it.

Protective lockdown had never been officially reported. It was the sort of procedure that would result in men in dark suits coming and taking away everyone in the building. Men with lots of guns and little in identification would follow and make sure that the stubborn few who had remained would leave. Research would be confiscated, buildings demolished. It was the sort of lockdown designed for keeping something in rather than stopping it from getting out. Rumour had it that the SRC was designed to self-destruct if some of the higher-clearance projects ever lost control. So rumour had it...

"For some reason, Professor Fudo has restricted entry to medical and security staff only." There had also been some noises Obake hadn't liked the sound of. In his own way, he was worried. "Since Dr Izinski was there only this morning, I thought she might be able to shed light on the matter. Calling security at this point _may_ be premature."

Din was no stranger to deception. People who saw only the twisted dwarf on the outside usually thought up some way to take advantage or mock him. Nobody really trusted Obake. It wasn't that he was necessarily untrustworthy but there was something about him that put people on edge. Just enough difference to spook them. Even though he was one of the few people Obake spoke with, it was not a strong relationship.

"Fine." Stumping over, he grabbed Obake's jacket and threw it over. "But you're getting the flack for this." Heaving himself up the broken drawers he had made into a staircase, Din waddled around the table to poke Akiza in the shoulder. "Wake up, you flabby cow." Wiping some of the grime from his forefinger, he flicked her about the ear until she began stirring.

"Ow." Managing to crack an eye open, Akiza found the sight of Din's scarred visage enough of a competitor for espresso to positively fly from her chair. "What time is it!" Being a Turbo Duellist had taught Akiza the value of quick thinking.

"Approximately nine-fifty-three." Trying to adjust to Obake was eerie. He demanded no attention but it was best to give him everything you could spare or risk losing track of him. "My apologises for disturbing you." Again, there was that low bow. "It appears something is amiss in Building Eight."

That vague warning woke Akiza up even faster than Din's face pressed against hers.

"What's happening?" Blinking beneath his mask, Obake sought to discard any extraneous information and deliver the basic facts.

"Entry has been restricted to medics and security. There appears to be a series of loud impacts or explosions. Sensors are not detecting anything unusual." There was only one floor that Yusei would have kept secret from the rest of the system. One floor where there was a power that dangerous.

"Din, what's the quickest way there?" She knew her way around the SRC well enough now but veterans always have a few tricks that beginners can never be taught.

"Out the window, slightly to your right." Of course, she was still standing in a science institution. Precision counts for something and Din could haggle Pi to a round number.

"Din!"

"Down the hall, turn left, right elevator at the end. Ground floor, turn right, left, left, follow the path." Something about the fire inside her had the ability to cut through his usual nonsense. It might be tough later but Akiza knew how to make Din work. Her footsteps quickly vanished down the corridor as the two men looked at each other.

"For what it's worth, I have read some of your work." Blind though he may appear, Obake saw more than people gave him credit for.

"Good for you." Turning his back on the quiet young man, Din gave him more than a cold shoulder. "Now get out of my lab." After a minute, he turned back around. For a man as angry and violent as he was, the sight of an empty room was unnerving when he hadn't heard anybody leave.

* * *

Under normal circumstances, Akiza would have followed the gently winding circular paths that ringed around the centre of the Scientific Research Centre and speared off towards the twelve buildings surrounding it. But with what she now knew, her feet heedlessly trampled across shallow banks of flowers and greenery as she headed directly across the grounds towards Building Eight. By the time she arrived, a stitch was burning in her chest from the sprint and she had pulled a muscle in her leg. Neither were particularly deadly wounds but they smarted nearly as bad as the figure waiting for her.

"Obake... how?" Even as she struggled to form entire sentences, she held her card closer to the scanner and heaved on the door.

"With all due respect," Obake calmly buttoned up the front of his jacket and tugged it straight. "It depends on how fast you can run." Again, he had faded into the background as events swirled around him. "The elevators move slowly to prevent any accidents. If you are fast enough, the stairs could save at least a minute."

"You can't come in here." Keeping pace alongside the doctor, he ignored her attempts to wave him back.

"I am deeply concerned for Professor Fudo's safety." Deep booms shook through the floor and echoed through the building. "And now is hardly the time for an argument." Dust fell from the ceiling and settled gently on the pair. Thick insulation of all varieties prevented the shock and noise from spreading beyond the structure but the noise inside was ominous.

"What was that?" Thumbing the call button, she was amazed at the level of calm beside her as Obake waited patiently.

"I do not know. They have been growing in intensity for some time." Another thump echoed, shaking the lift slightly as it began an ascent.

"How long?" She had been asleep when he arrived and couldn't tell how long it could have been.

"The first such noise only happened thirteen minutes ago." Without checking a watch, he seemed to be keeping perfect time. "After the third, I felt it best to ask your assistance." Both doors opened onto the thirteenth floor to find Yusei standing alone in the closed floor. Another tortured thud confirmed Akiza's worst suspicions – the noise was coming from inside Musume's cell.

"Obake?" Fear touched Yusei's voice when he saw the bandaged figure by Akiza's side. "You shouldn't be here." Keeping a step behind, Obake followed Akiza out across the floor.

"You failed to respond to any attempts at contact and put this building into lockdown." Standing a few feet behind the pair, he folded his arms behind his back. "I was concerned." A blow to the reinforced wall emphasised his words.

"Okay, I'm here, I'm alive." Something about the presence of the young man seemed aggravating to Yusei. Maybe it was the young Psychic about to tear the building apart. "Now, for your own safety, go!" At that moment, safety ceased to exist. With a sound of tortured metal and a flash of light, a large hole suddenly appeared in the wall that kept the world and the strongest Psychic Akiza had ever known apart.

Yusei had knocked her to the ground as soon as the plate had snapped loose. Obake seemed not to notice the metal until it was too late, a glancing blow sending him tumbling across the room. In the panic and confusion, neither physicist nor physician had noticed.

Staggering in the centre of the hole, their eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden influx of light as a figure stumbled free. It was slow, uncertain of itself and coated only in the hospital gown it had been dressed in and the tattered fragments of a blanket that had covered it during a long slumber drooped over it's head. Pausing it looked about itself, it disregarded the cowering figures of the thick plates guarding all the distant walls. Only one thing deserved any attention – the lift doors that were still open. Lurching forward as remarkable speeds for a recent coma victim, it stumbled across the floor and into the tiny box just before the doors could close.

It was impossible, unthinkable but true. Somehow, without any rhyme, reason or warning, Musume was awake.


	16. Bewildered

Even as the lift doors shut and the sound of hammering dropped down the shaft, Yusei was sprinting towards the shaft with all the speed he could muster. Dazed and confused, Akiza tried to head after him but a wave of nausea threatened to overcome her. In his haste to protect her from harm, Yusei had inadvertently caused her head to collide with the floor.

"What are you doing?" Heaving at the doors, Yusei seemed intent on diving heroically down the shaft after Musume.

"Countermeasures prevent any signal getting in or out of this floor." Cracking the doors open an inch, he managed to slip a hand into the gap. "Need to access the shaft for a clear connection." Stretching his muscles to the full extent of their might, both gleaming silver doors edged open.

"Who're you going to call?" A memory cropped up in her mind. She had asked that question to Din when they found out the impossible extent of Yusei's condition. It seemed funny for some reason and she dissolved into giggles.

"Trudge." Hanging in the shaft slightly, it was both an answer and an address to the person who had just picked up his call. "We've got a problem."

"It's funny." Closing one eye, the grizzled cop squinted at the innards of one thick boot. "Whenever you call me on my time off with those words, I'm always just taking off my shoes." Turning it over, he examined the tread in hopes of finding some gizmo that could cause emergencies.

"Considering I'm hanging in an elevator shaft to make this call, the least you could do is pay attention." Although he felt no fear hanging over the abyssal space, Yusei was not stupid enough to do it longer than he had to.

"Okay," Taking a sip from his drink nearby, Trudge instinctively started putting his boot back on. "Shoot."

"First, you're going to need a bigger drink." Already paranoid over his shoe, Trudge gave his tumbler a dirty look next. "Next, I need you to check ongoing crimes. Reports of drunk people, women in hospital gowns. Anything that seems out of the norm."

" _Everything_ you ask me to do is out of the norm." It was true. One time, Yusei had asked him to pick up a batch of fresh seaweed on his way home. By the time Trudge arrived, dinner was midway through preparation with Yusei peeling vegetables over the sink.

"Musume is awake." Lifting his glass, Trudge examined the contents. Again, Yusei had been right in predicting he would need a bigger drink.

"Are we talking 'strong coffee' or 'zombie'?" Glancing at the troubled Akiza, Yusei could make up his mind faster than a speeding bullet.

"The latter. If it's not too much trouble, I need you out on the streets as well. I'll join you in a minute." Grabbing his jacket from the back of his apartment door, Trudge wriggled one arm in one sleeve. "Trudge? This needs to be done under the radar."

"Remind me the last time we investigated a nice, _normal_ crime?" Pocketing his phone, Yusei swung himself out from the gaping maw of the elevator shaft.

"Don't feel so good." Cradling her head in her hands, Akiza was curled up in the recovery position. "I might need a minute." Gears whirred and clunked as the lift started back up the shaft again.

"Let me see." Slowly peeling her hands away, he edged his fingers about her skull in search of any cuts or bruises. Something wet and warm coated his finger and Yusei didn't need a degree to tell what it was. Scuttling around to her far side, he carefully peeled back her hair. In the harsh light of the bulb above the doors, the cut seemed ragged and sore. Blood was pouring out of it and there was a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach.

Logic overrode the fear, squashing it down. The cut only appeared bad. From how her head was angled against the bulb, it caused the light to cast a deep shadow over the wound. Blood that appeared to be pouring down her head was actually just where it had clumped her hair together. As the lift doors opened, Yusei gently lifted and moved her into the lift as he attacked the next problem. Getting her to another medic would be easy. It would be harder trying to explain his involvement. Easiest if he simply avoided involving anyone else altogether. Smashing open the panel that covered it, he drew out the emergency first aid kit and instantly went for the disinfectants and bandages.

"This is going to sting." Blinking at him in the steady lights of the elevator, Akiza knew how much of an understatement that phrase was. It never just stung.

"What did Trudge say?" Even woozy, she was able to keep track of the important events.

"He'll keep an eye out for Musume." Wrapping the bandage slowly around her skull, he held it in place with a sturdy safety clip. "How do you feel?" Flexing her fingers, Akiza moved a hand in front of her face in a series of controlled gestures.

"I'll live." Wincing at the contact, she slowly pressed against the bandage. "Probably."

"As your boss, I forbid it." Sensing her reluctance to stay still any longer, Yusei helped his friend regain his footing. "I'll be damned if I can find somebody else who can deal with Din as well as you can." Summoning a faint smile, Akiza let him feel useful by semi-carrying her across the ground floor to the outside. She could have easily done it herself but it helped him to feel needed and she would stick to that story like glue. Once outside, she managed to straighten up under her own power. There were limits to her humility.

"Where do you think she'll go?" That was the question that was already plaguing his mind. From what little he could remember about Musume and the personal experience he had of being so disoriented himself, there was one terrifyingly easy way to sum up the answer. "What's the plan?"

"Follow the mayhem." In the distance, sirens started sounding. It was unlikely to be related to Musume so early on but the noise set a sombre tone.

* * *

Once Musume had broken clear from the building, she had found herself in unfamiliar surroundings. Everything was sharp, painful. Eyes that hadn't been focused in years struggled to define the sharp edges of buildings and objects. Limbs that had lain almost dormant felt strange under her control, sluggish. Although her body was as strong and fit as the day she had fallen asleep, her control over it and herself was lacking. It took coma patients weeks to adjust, months to regain their full mobility. Musume was capable of the full extent of her abilities without the mind she used to control them.

She was very dangerous.

Her first encounter with the modern world was shortly after fleeing the confining grounds of the SRC. Dressed in a hospital gown and covered by a blanket, a good samaritan tried to help what he thought was an escaped patient. For the good deed, his reward was a punch that knocked three teeth out and unhinged his jawbone.

Another couple were having dinner out. Newspapers would report it was their romantic first date, ruined by the violence of a wandering vagrant. The report given to the police spoke differently, that they were actually struggling to keep it together and there was no great loss. What they could agree on was it was a small restaurant in a narrow street. Their attacker had simply lunged from an alleyway, shoved them both aside and crammed handfuls of food into her mouth before stumbling drunkenly down the street.

Problems really started cropping up when she hit the more lit parts of town. As the flash bright light seared her eyes, Musume was blind and tumbling from the protection of her shadows. By the time she turned around, she had been swept up by the crowd and lost her way back into the protective narrows of the alleyway. An all-hours street vendor peddling counterfeit coats lost a cheap jacket as she tore it from the hangers. Seeing her bare legs might have dredged up a spark of compassion and sympathy or it might have spoken of a resolve that wouldn't care over killing for the coat. She moved on.

Although her body was working at the best it had ever done, there was something Musume hadn't thought to account for – the sheer noise of everything. In her controlled room, the only noises she had listened to had been the constant reports of the machines and her own screams when her muscles kept themselves from deteriorating. In the hubbub of a thriving city, it was as if an endless wave of fighters was constantly punching her on both sides of the head at once.

Operating more on instinct, she had stumbled toward the one place people couldn't be heard – the road. A taxi was quick to swerve about her, the slow bus behind slamming on both brakes hard enough to send passengers tumbling but not stopping before the bumper clipped her on the hard and sent her tumbling across the road. In pain and perplexed, she grasped her now broken arm and ran as fast as she could through the strange world she could perceive. A dark side-street provided a safe haven, somewhere to kneel and try to adjust to the overwhelming flood of information.

Several figures had followed her down the quiet street. Though they later protest it had been to check on her state, some animalistic sense inside her had told Musume what they were truly after. She was injured, alone and running – easy game to these hunters. One said something as they closed in, the others laughing in callous tones.

No cameras existed in the narrow avenue. The nearest ones were back on the main road she had fled from. What they recorded was three men flying backwards as some dark light erupted in an explosion of power. Initial reports said a bomb was to blame, others reported a Psychic Duel was happening. That was when Trudge picked up the trail.

"Which way did the woman go?" As he wasn't an active cop, he was forced to flash his badge and hope the citizens answer him of their own free will.

"She just came running out into the street, Officer." As the only one on the bus who lacked the luxury of bracing properly, the driver had suffered painful whiplash. "I tried to stop, but she hit the bus and got hurt. I'm not getting into trouble for this, am I?" Pulling a notebook, Trudge relied upon the cruel machinations of bureaucracy instead of his trademark brand. It was better that reports didn't point him out.

"That woman is very ill. It is vital she receives the correct care." Without so much as diverting his gaze, he checked the Shock Baton was tied safely to his hip. "If you can tell me which way she went, it would help _us all_ a great deal." Such an inference did not go unnoticed.

"She went that way," Pointing towards the darkened street, pained muscles pulled in his neck again. "I dunno what happened after that. Something flashed and I heard people shouting but I was checking on the passengers." It was the same story Trudge had already heard from a few other points but now he knew where it had begun.

It was a fresh trail, barely ten minutes old. With a little luck and some extra cops, he could easily track down the woman who had wounded his pride so long ago. Psychics were dangers to those they deemed a threat but could be taken down if handled properly. A few snipers, maybe enough Shock Batons and volunteers eager for swift promotion...

Growling as the possibility of a decent chase fell to his own moral compass, Trudge grudgingly pulled out his phone and called Yusei.

"She's moving through the city like some damn natural disaster." From the devastation left in her wake, Musume seemed to act more like a tornado than anything else. "Got a pen?"

As Akiza had recovered from her wound, she and Yusei had headed for the reserved parking spot his car was kept in. Their reasoning had been that it would be more helpful to get there in a hurry than be late.

"Let me have it." Folding an actual paper map on his dashboard, Yusei marked a spot for each reported crime. More were coming in every minute as a minor state of panic was spreading through the city. Normally, the police would have handled it but the first plucky few had already fallen ominously silent. Until a full riot squad could be put together, they were happy enough just tracking it. "Okay, got it." It hadn't actually required all the points Trudge had given him but Yusei wanted to make sure.

"Do you see what I see?" Sitting in the passenger seat, Akiza had noticed the same trend he had. In a crude, wandering fashion, Musume had struck out from the SRC, gained her bearings and was heading in the general direction of Poppo Time.

"She's heading back home. But why attack us _here_ and then go _there_?" It made no sense. Unless, of course, Musume wasn't able to make sense of her surroundings. Then it made perfect sense.

"I don't know." Tugging her seatbelt on, Akiza tried not to throw up. It was possible she had a minor concussion but she wouldn't let a small thing like that stop her from helping a friend. "But I hope you have a plan to deal with her." So did Yusei and he only had the drive back home to think of one.

* * *

When they pulled up into the square, it was immediately clear something was wrong. The doors to the Poppo Time shop had been smashed in, literally torn from their hinges. Cutting the engine, Yusei slowed to a halt beside the wall that divided the old square from the ancient forest on the other side. Careful to make as little noise as possible, he opened his door and slid out into the night. Across from him, Akiza did the same.

"What do you think you're doing?" Whispering as loudly as he dared, it was clear Yusei was not okay with Akiza following him inside.

"Going with you. In case you forgot, she's a Psychic?" Since Ark Cradle, Akiza hadn't used her abilities to harm anybody else but that didn't mean she wasn't up to using them to stop somebody from harming people.

"In case you forgot, you're injured." On the ride over, she had been lucid but suffered some difficulty focusing. It was clearer in the night air but Akiza still felt slightly groggy.

"I'm coming." Closing her door with the intensity of a slam, she closed the debate with it. Hefting a wrench in his better hand, Yusei took a steady lead through the doors.

Broken clocks littered the floor. Here and there, a disconnected tick could sometimes be made out as a resistant mechanism turned over but many were beyond repair. It would traumatise Lyndon to see so much of his work in ruins but that would be a battle for the morning. Right now, there were more pressing concerns.

With cogs and springs spread all over the floor, there was the odd crunch as Yusei crept closer to the door that led to the rest of the building. It was normally kept firmly shut – Zora determined not to let any snooping reporter creep past her watch and infiltrate the home of the vaunted Yusei Fudo – but it had suffered a similar fate to the doors behind them. A few measly pieces hung by a hinge, the rest were scattered onto the staircase behind.

Mindful not to slip or make any further noise, Yusei held a finger to his lips and pointed into the room beyond. Stumbling about in the middle of the garage, Musume seemed confused by the open space and acting primarily on instinct. Tools and equipment lay strewn about the place as primal rage had taken hold and torn apart the room. Chips in the stone would never heal from the blows she had dealt with lengths of piping.

Creeping softly down the stairs, Yusei motioned for Akiza to stay back a ways. It was evident that Musume wasn't in her right mind. If it was worth risking anybody, the dying man should be at the top of that list. A passive shrug indicated that she did not disagree. Wounded already, Yusei tried not to make it too evident he was prepared for a fight as he hid the wrench up one sleeve.

"Musume?" Whirling at her name, the shrouded figure glared out at him with unsettlingly glowing eyes. "It's Yusei. Can we talk?" Walking closer, he attempted to gauge her mental state. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just me."

Peering through the haze of her adjusting vision, Musume's eyes deceived her mind for a moment. Instead of the popular young scientist, she saw something she had hoped never to see again. A nightmare that had haunted her earlier years with an evil she had wished she had never known.

"Not you. Not **you!** " Screaming, she punched Yusei hard enough to send him arcing across the room where the wall was kind enough to break his fall. After that, he decided that maybe the best option for him was to stay far away.

"Musume, you need to calm down!" Squinting through her blurred gaze, it was possible to identify the scarlet hair of Akiza. Taking each step as slowly as she could, the doctor approached her patient with the same caution she would approach an enraged tiger. "It's just Yusei and me. There's nobody else here."

"Mu... Akiza? You live here? With _him_?" Wobbling and delirious, Musume clutched the blankets about her head as she struggled to stand upright.

"It's okay." Holding her by one shoulder, Akiza steadied the stumbling woman. "Nobody's going to hurt you." Reaching over, she balanced herself against the other shoulder. "You're safe here."

"You can't trust him." Dragging her in close, Musume whispered out beneath the fabric. "He's _dangerous_." With that ominous remark, she sagged in Akiza's grip and sent herself and the weakened doctor tumbling to the floor.


	17. Adjustment

It is said that people cannot dream in a coma. Their brain shuts down, higher thoughts are stopped and time simply passes them by. Those lucky few who wake up experience 'emergent phenomena'. Memories, hallucinations... dreams. When people come out of their comas, all these and more are possible. Normally. _Normally_ when _normal_ people come out of their _normal_ comas. Musume was not normal.

Every minute that she had been dead to the world, she had been alive in another one. Not the happy little Spirit World Luna had inhabited during her little nap as a child. For eight years, Musume had spent her existence somewhere far deeper and darker than even the Netherworld. In that place, there wasn't any sleep nor rest nor peace. Just constant running and fighting. When her attempts failed and she was captured, Musume was tortured in ways more subtle than any mere human could devise. Illusions of freedom, safety, family. When she did escape, back into the fleeing and the fighting, there was always a part of her that was uncertain. Questioning that maybe this was not real but another figment of safety about to be torn away.

It was no wonder she woke up screaming several times throughout the night. Each time, Akiza was there to comfort her. Considering how Musume had reacted to seeing Yusei the night before, they had mutually agreed that she would watch over Musume while Yusei tried to straighten things out with Trudge, the police and anybody else who had been caught in the walking calamity. By the time he returned to Poppo Time, Yusei had already been pressured into upgrading the city buses, pressed into looking into improving the city's security network and blackmailed by Trudge to buy him a new pair of boots every time Yusei wanted something done 'off the books'.

"Really?" Filling the kettle for the third time that night, Akiza had almost run out of coffee to keep her exhaustion from overcoming her. "A pair of boots?"

"That's what he said." Looking at the range of mugs in his cupboard, Yusei reached for the two largest. "Every favour, a new pair of boots. How's Musume?" Right on cue, another scream split the air.

"Better." This time, there wasn't any follow-up and Musume fell straight back to her disturbed sleep. "She's disoriented. Unable to determine where she is. Thanks." Wrapping both hands around the mug, she felt the slight burning wake up her as fast as any coffee. "Some times, she recognises me and knows exactly where she is. Others, she seems to think she's in some sort of nightmare."

"I can't _imagine_ what that must be like." Sipping coffee through the dry tone in his voice, Yusei tried not to think about how few hours remained until he was forced back through his own nightmare.

"Hush." Elbowing him gently in the side, Akiza let the scalding brew burn her tongue to keep her awake. "She's been through a lot. Pulse is back on track, respiration seems fine. Temperature is a bit high but still about normal. It's a miracle but I think she'll survive."

"That's good." Staring down the corridor, Yusei tried to think of how best to break into the next subject. "How long do you think it will take her to adjust?" It was near enough his worry to get answers without alerting Akiza.

"If her story is true?" Even now, there were doubts amongst some of the former Signers about how much of Musume's past was fact or fiction. "Probably quicker than most but eight years is still a long time. If she takes it slowly, there shouldn't be any problems." Downing the rest of her coffee, Akiza tried to will the caffeine to last longer this time. "What about Yliaster?" As the only other time-traveller they knew besides Z-One, there was no telling how much knowledge of the future was locked away inside Musume's head.

"If they ask, I'll tell them Musume was an unstable Psychic I was treating." It was the truth, minus a whole lot of the story. "As far as she is concerned, I don't know if she ever had any contact with them eight years ago. Nanashi never mentioned it and I never asked." It was safer that way. With invisible tentacles spreading out further than Yusei could guess, Nanashi was careful only to speak of events after they had become public. They were not friends. "I'll have to go back to the SRC in a minute. Being the boss means the blame ends with me." Not that he didn't occasionally 'forget' the odd meeting or three. "Ogino will probably give you some leeway with Din if I get down on my knees."

"Tell her it's a family emergency." A sly grin wormed its way across her face. "And tell Din I needed some time away from his second-rate work." Washing the dregs of his coffee down the sink, Yusei did his best not to let the unprofessional smile cross his face.

"I'll be sure to send him a message." Backwards as he was, Din had avoided hundreds of department meetings by virtue of not getting the emails. He was happy, the departments he worked with were happier and as long as he had the blackboards, chalk and notebooks to copy down his research, the SRC continued to spin along without too much trouble.

On his way out of Poppo Time, Yusei was only mildly hampered by a small mob of concerned neighbours. "Is everything alright?" Stephanie had done well for herself since Jack had left. After being promoted to management level, Cafe la Geen had expanded into several other branches across the city and was starting to turn into the type of small business that could be seriously bought out by a bigger company.

"We heard screaming." A deeply suspicious neighbour – who Yusei never failed to forget the name of – squinted pointedly from the middle of the crowd. "What happened to your doors?" Switching from suspicion to 'knowing', he changed tone. "Did you catch somebody breaking in and decided to teach them a lesson?" In the bright of day, it was almost possible to see the underlying negativity of human jealousy.

"My friends, everything is okay." Pausing slightly, he was amazed that fate hadn't dictated Musume to scream and disrupt that moment. "There is nothing to worry about." Holding the gaze of as many people as he could, Yusei made direct eye contact for a precious few seconds. It was a trick he had been taught by the public relations department to deal with large crowds and it was working wonders here. "An old friend recently suffered a serious injury. They're just staying with me whilst they recover." It was bland, unspecific and true. The perfect components for a cover story. "As part of the recovery, frequent and vivid nightmares at to be expected." Again, no scream. If Yusei didn't know better, he would swear his luck was turning for the better. "As soon as they are well enough, I will ask my friend out to visit each and every one of you if you still think I'm up to no good." This last one was directed at... Ken? Kon? One of these days, Yusei would be certain to remember his name.

"My nephew is a nurse." All smiles and fluff, Yusei's neighbour across the way was a kindly old lady who made sure he always had enough to eat and to check on his cat. "Would you like me to give him a call?"

"Thank you, Mrs Endo." Giving a genuine smile, Yusei felt a wave of affection for the old widow. "But Akiza is a fully qualified doctor with degrees in psychology and neurology. She'll be fine."

"But how did your doors get broke?" Not one to drop a conspiracy so easily, Kon – Yusei would stick with the name until he could have Trudge look up the man's real one later – was picking at every little detail. Seeing doors propped upright and sealed closed with little more than rolls of tape counted as 'proof' to any mediocre investigator.

"You've caught me. My friend actually tore them off the hinges with brute strength and then fell asleep for ten hours." Checking his watch for the exact time, Yusei winced slightly. Even if he hurried and caught all green lights with a police escort, he would still be late to his video meeting to apologise to Minister Vasilyeva for walking out on the conference call a few days ago. "I'm sorry, I really have to go." Inwardly delighted at the furious look he was getting from Kon at his deception with the truth, Yusei strode over to his car and managed to reverse out of the square before he could be guilted into answering any more invasive questions.

As soon as Yusei left, Akiza risked entering her own room again. Musume was dead to the world on her bed but a quick check proved she was still very much alive. Faint whimpers came from beneath the mask as she was plagued by some ongoing nightmare but there was nothing that Akiza could do about those. Nightmare or not, the soundest solution for Musume at that moment was to rest her weary body. It was difficult being in a coma and her brain was having to adjust to being used again. While it did, Akiza would take advantage of the quiet to have a quick shower and clear her own head.

By the time she came out, she was no longer alone in the apartment. At some point in her therapeutic wash, her patient had risen from slumber and gone on to put three cups of coffee on the low table by the couch. One was already empty and she was blowing on another already.

Wrapped up in a thick dressing gown and wearing what appeared to be the pilfered first pair of Trudge's many 'favour boots', Musume had covered every exposed piece of skin she could. What really stuck out was her ridiculous attempt to hide her face. "Is that my pillowcase?" Forgoing the thick metal mask she had been wearing previously, Musume had crammed her head into one of Akiza's thick pillowcases. From the outside, her face was invisible. From inside, it was hot, stuffy and impossible to make out more than the vague outlines of anything in the room.

"It's temporary." Throat still parched from years without a drink, Musume was suddenly thirsty for a real _drink_.

"It's certainly something." Looking through the many cupboards, Akiza searched in vain of a straw. "What happened to that metal mask of yours?"

"Long story. Short version, it's gone." Grabbing the mug of coffee, Musume turned slightly, lifted the lower limits of the fabric just high enough and down the scalding liquid in three large swallows. "I'm going to need a new helmet."

"Still scared of showing your face?" Giving up on the hunt, Akiza settled back on the sofa. "You _can_ trust us. Except maybe Jack. And Crow." A snide inner voice added Yusei to the list but she pushed it aside.

"It's not trust I need. It's safety. If anybody sees my face, it opens me up to a lot of dangerous questions." New Domino had advanced a lot in the past eight years but it was still more than a decade behind what she remembered. To the world outside the broken doors, her time was still a long way off. To her – even with eight years of sleep beneath her belt – it could have been only a month ago.

"So, what do you plan to do now that you're awake?" Picking idly at a chip in her mug, Musume tried not to leak the weakness of hunger overcome her. It was a losing battle.

"See what's changed. Pick up my pace a bit and settle back into a grove." Sliding one hand through the air, she wriggled her fingers over imaginary bumps in the road ahead. "I could do with a place to crash."

Waving aside the issue, Akiza knew what her only answer was. "You're always welcome here. Just, try and be a bit more open with us this time." Though she like and sort of trusted the young woman, there was a lot she didn't know about her. "Jack's room is yours as long as you need it. There's some stuff we'll need to move out of it first but it's yours."

"Mmm. What are you doing with all that medical equipment?" It was an incongruous question but part of her burned with fear from a future she had thought diverted.

"That's Yusei's... secret to share." Stopping before she could blurt out the real reason, Akiza could still see some tension leaving the shrouded shoulders at the slip. A quiet yawn didn't go unnoticed either. "Sorry, I'm absolutely exhausted." She had tried forcing herself to stay awake once in college. A strange mixture of energy drinks and espresso later and her brain was firing on some very unusual cylinders as her body clocked out and dropped her like a stone. That time was fast approaching once again.

"I think that might have been me." Although not really aware of her actions, some lingering vestige of instinctive memory lurked in the back of Musume's mind. "When you touched me, I think I took the energy I needed to start waking up."

"Think? _Start_?" As far as Akiza was concerned, she could have run a marathon in weights with the exhaustion she had accrued the morning before.

"It's not an exact science." Rubbing her thumb over the dimple in the bottom of her cup, she tried to expand her senses as best she could. "When I woke Yusei up eight years ago, it completely drained my Psychic powers. If I had been normal, I'd be dead." It had not been a pleasant experience. Once she had started, Musume had found herself unable to stop. It just kept sucking out of her until there was nothing left to give.

"So I gave you a boost." It was unflattering to act as a human battery but it was worth it to see how masked friend awake again.

"By the way, who else knows I'm awake?" Heart pounding, Musume dreaded to think of the damage she had caused the night before. It would be dangerous to draw too much attention to herself this soon.

"Just Yusei, me and Trudge. Those are his boots you're wearing." Lifting one thick soul, Musume admired the weight and heft.

"Not any more. First things first, I need a shower." Eight years without a proper clean had left her with a faint odour at the best of times. Even with her altered state and a few extra advantages, the exertions of the previous night's nightmares were enough to warrant a quick clean. "Then I want to soak in a bath for an hour. After that, there are a few things I need to check on." It was best she keep her checklist vague. Some of the items weren't exactly legal and others weren't even sane.


	18. Food

There are four things every coma survivor deeply needs: a wash, food, sleep and more food. An argument could be made that no, food counts as one item. Of course, that was assuming they had never seen the amount of food somebody who had lived on fluids for eight years could eat. As soon as she was done with an hour long marathon in the bathroom, Musume had moved onto the next challenge: breakfast.

First, she had boiled an egg. It was soft food, the first tenuous step on the frozen lake. If she could keep it down, it meant she was ready to move onto bigger and better meals. When the first taste of proper sustenance in almost a decade touched her lips, Musume threw caution to the wind and wind almost feral.

Jars of preservatives were slathered into sandwiches and crammed down her gullet. Remains of Akiza's crab salad served only as the necessary fuel to keep going as the udon noodles cooked. A tray of sashimi was enough of a distraction as she burnt two pans making a heaping of fried rice which in turn gave her the energy to cobble together the remaining ingredients in the fridge into a strange curry that looked and smelled awful but held enough nutrients to sustain even the most deathly ill patient. Then the takeout arrived.

From a medical perspective, Akiza was utterly fascinated. Between the various containers strewn around the room, Musume appeared to have eaten the contents of a small farm, paid for the land (with money 'borrowed' from Akiza) and then grown to a comparable size.

"Anything else?" As a doctor, Akiza was ready to do almost anything to get her patient healthy again but she was still waiting on that wonderful wage the SRC had her down for. If this pace of eating kept up much longer, she would be out of money by dinner.

"No, thanks." Cramming the last piece of fried squid past her jaw, Musume fell back with a contented sigh. "That really hit the spot." Wincing slightly, she turned onto her left side to help the digestive process along. "So, what's been going on while I've been asleep?" Drawing her legs up and resting her covered head in one hand, she seemed on the verge of falling asleep again. "How is everyone?"

"Really good, actually." It came out with a bit more snip than she intended but Musume's last visit had included a prophecy they were all going to die. People tend to hold a grudge over the little things like that. "Jack got back into Duelling in a big way. None of his old sponsors would touch him so his agent put together a nice little collaboration of smaller companies to keep him going. Surprisingly, he kept with them the whole way. Decided that the people who decided he was worth the risk should keep the reward." It had been a touching act of loyalty. Every time a bigger and richer company had come to him with a deal, he had turned them down flat. "Crow joined up with a Duelling Team and toured around the circuits for a while. He's going to go solo soon and head straight for Jack." Money was already being placed within the privacy of the family. As an equally loving mother, Martha was refusing to take part in the foolishness. Being the only perfectly neutral party, she had also been given the responsibility of tracking the bets.

"Crow went into Duelling again?" Already happy from the fifteen-course meal she had just eaten, Musume was practically overflowing with joy to hear the news. "I always knew he would."

"That reminds me, what was that medicine you gave him?"

"We can talk about that later," Waving aside possibly one of the biggest advancements in medicine, the young woman was more interested in learning about her friends. "What happened to the twins?"

"Hmmm. Leo joined the junior leagues for a while but didn't have enough history to really get into the pros. Crow tipped his own team to get Leo when he left. Luna went to a great university in England to study fashion and geopolitics." It had been a weird combination of subjects but Luna had excelled at them both. "After that, she managed to get a job working with Misty." As a global fashion model and designer, Misty had high standards for anybody who worked for her and Luna was no exception. Endless nights without sleep, cruel deadlines and the never-ending revisions would send most people mad. "She travels all over now, using the proceeds from her designs to help fund aid work." In designer circles, Luna was ranked as barely richer than the people who she tried to help. In normal circles, the ranking was a step above most people but still relatable.

"And look at you, being all doctor-y." Unashamed of her complete disregard for privacy, Musume had rummaged through Akiza's possessions in the brief interval between waking up and leaving the room. "I can honestly say, I didn't expect it from you. What made you want to get a psychology degree of all things?" Inside, she seethed with curiosity. There was a very good reason she took an interest in her current carer and she would learn everything she could.

"I wanted to figure out how my powers worked." It had been easy trying to fob off the other students at Dian Keto. Psychology was the study of the mind and neurology was the study of the brain. It was simple to connect the dots for the rare few who hadn't already. "There's still so much we don't know about them. How do they work? _Why_ do they work? Is there a genetic component? Are they a random mutation in human genetics?" She could go on and on if given half a chance. It was an endless mystery that fascinated her.

"So where are you working these days?" Not blind to the light in Akiza's eyes, Musume was quick to move the conversation on before it could get mired in medical jargon.

"At the SRC." A blank look came from the pillowcase. "Scientific Research Centre?" Another extended bout of silence. "The New Domino Scientific Research Centre?"

"Never heard of it, no matter how many times you say the name."

"Yusei set it up eight years ago, starting with the Fortune Mainframe?" That had to be it, the moment their histories had diverged. "It's research institution Yusei founded to make sure that science doesn't get ahead of us. People from all over the world want to work there." This news was both good and bad for Musume. On the one hand, it was irrefutable proof that she had changed the timeline. On the other, it meant this new world could be vastly different from hers.

"Sounds like I have a lot of catching up to do. How long have you been working there?"

"A few weeks. There was some computer trouble and I lost my qualifications so I was having trouble getting work. The medical director did some digging and decided to take a risk. Yusei wasn't happy but,"

"Why wouldn't Yusei be happy about it?" In an effort to get all the answers she needed, Musume had developed an unfortunate habit of cutting across people.

"Yusei is in charge of the SRC." Wearing a mask helped Musume appear in constant control of her emotions. It couldn't cover the stiffening muscles in her back but she straightened slightly to hide the tell.

"So you and Yusei work together and live together? Should I expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?" Despite the joke at her expense, Akiza felt strangely comfortable with the young woman sitting at the other end of the sofa. Like they had met a few times and somehow become friends.

"No, it's just temporary until we can sort out a few things." Secrets and lies danced around the conversation as they both avoided saying what they actually meant. "And at work, I'm a few rungs below Yusei. I'm working with an _unorthodox_ man called Din. We're doing some amazing research on neurological conditions together." Clamming her lips shut, Akiza tried to stop herself from letting slip another secret. Again, she felt able to relax about this girl.

"Sounds fascinating." A dry humour dispelled any notion of honesty.

"What about you? What do you plan on doing now?" A long time ago, Akiza had shown Musume sympathy when nobody else would. She still felt bad about lying to the hotshot doctor but there was little choice.

"Check out a few things, catch up on what I missed." Reaching under the pillowcase, she scratched at a smear of grease caked over her cheek. "After that, I'm not sure. There are a few things left for me to tick off my bucket list but I'm free as the proverbial bird." It wasn't true. There were many things she still had left to do and few that she felt comfortable sharing with Akiza. "Can I borrow your phone later? I want to give Crow a call and let him know I'm awake."

"Do you want to call him now?" Patting herself down for the phone, Akiza finally spied it on the table beneath a stack of empty cartons. "Last I heard, he was heading through South Africa. Or was it South America?" Chasing so many tournaments, Akiza sometimes struggled to keep track of her friends as they sprinted across the globe.

"Probably best I let my food settle first. I'll need my wits about me to really go after the little scavenger bird." It was a tiny slip that neither of them noticed right at the moment. In future days, they would both realise the potential significance of the simple sentence and wonder how they had both let it slip on by. "You should probably go to work. I hear the boss comes over to your house if you skip out."

" _Actually_ , Yusei promised to arrange everything with my manager so I didn't get in trouble for making sure you were okay." Acid would have been stung by her tone. It didn't go unnoticed by Musume either who instantly clamped her mouth shut.

In the growing silence, Akiza was glad when her phone went off. "It's my friends from the... from work." Trying to turn as far away from the resulting mess as she could, Akiza huddled into the corner of the couch before accepting the video call. Squeezed into the tiny screen were Chiyoko, Haruka, Koharu Tom and even Din squinting at the bottom of the screen.

"Can she really hear us through this thing?" Shaking the camera slightly, Din pressed an eye up to the screen.

"Hush, you Neanderthal," Tearing the handset from his grubby grip, Koharu threatened to eliminate him from view entirely as she raised it beyond his reach. "We heard you weren't feeling well and wanted to check in."

"Tell her she's a fat, ugly cow who deserves to be sent to the far side of the planet." Grumbling the insults, Din stretched to see the screen.

"Always a pleasure to hear your voice and not have to smell your stench." In the background, Tom was noticeably pale but whether it was from on of Din's graphic insults or his potent pong was anyone's guess. "A friend fell ill and I'm just taking the day to help her out." Haruka nodded sagely, reading a message that wasn't there as Chiyoko clambered onto the table to get a better view.

"If you're not too busy tomorrow night," Koharu's voice had the dry tone of somebody who smells a rat but lacks the drive to actually chase it down. "We were thinking about going to this awesome club. Your friend is welcome to come along if she's feeling better." Again, the tone.

Glancing down the couch, Akiza checked for an answer that came in the form of a tilted pillowcase as if to say 'duh'.

"What sort of club?" A fellow student studying at Dian Keto had also invited her to a party. Once there, he had stopped going by Marvin and demanded everybody refer to him as 'Diego'. As soon as Akiza saw the vampire theme inside, she left without actually entering. It had been an excellent lesson in learning caution.

"Loud music, good drinks and a bunch of scientists swapping ideas. Think 'party' with _subtle_ ," She stressed the word. "Undertones of actual brains." It was true, even the smartest student seemed to dissolve into a raving lunatic as soon as the first drinks were poured. "Nothing freaky. Unless Din comes. After a few pints, he tends to" A distinctive glare cut short the rest of the sentence. Even if Koharu had a robotic suit on, Din could still inflict some serious damage if he was pushed to it. "Anyway, sound good?" Looking back at Musume again, Akiza waited to see what her plans were for the next evening.

"Go. Have some fun. Just," A rare notion of caution entered her mind. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Caution spiked slightly. "Don't do anything _Leo_ wouldn't do." Her first choice had actually been Crow but even eight years removed, Musume knew the sort of man Crow was.

"Sounds great. Meet you at your place around nine?" On the other end of the video call, Koharu gave a distracted nod as she shook Din by his scruffy collar. "Can't wait." Closing the line, she dropped back against the sofa in exhaustion. Her friends could be fun but there was something about them that tended to drain you as soon as you left.

"They sound nice." Listening from out of view of the camera, Musume had picked up on the tones of genuine happiness in Akiza's voice.

"They are." Already feeling guilty over her anger, Akiza looked for some way to make up for the emotional outburst. "Why don't you come along? Wear one of those opera masks or something." Sensing a hesitation, she pressed on. "From what I hear, you haven't been out to a decent club in years." Sighing at the poor joke, Musume felt the last threads of real humour slip through her grasp.

"I think I'll just take it easy for a couple of days." Strength and diet fully returned, she still needed to readjust to using her body again. It might have only seemed like weeks since she remembered using this body but her mind kept recalling one further back when she was still a normal person.

"Well, if you change your mind." Scribbling down some numbers on the back of a menu, Akiza handed over the grease-stained card. "My number and Yusei's. Just in case you need to call us. You're welcome to borrow some of my clothes for now but we'll go shopping later and get you some of your own." Staring at the torn card in her hand, Musume wiped a thumb over the writing. She was especially thankful that the pillowcase covered her eyes. Coming from a rough and complicated background, it was hard to believe that she was sitting on a comfortable couch with Akiza and discussing a shopping trip. It wasn't something she had even dared dream off when she first set off back in time and it was a simple memory she would be sure to treasure in the days ahead.


	19. Intelligence

By the morning, Musume was feeling a lot better. Not good enough to be useful around the house but enough that Akiza was free to go to work and continue arguing with Din. Whilst looking after Musume the day before, she had reached out to a few colleagues for ideas and was eager to press on with their research. Din had other ideas.

"So a friend takes a nap and suddenly the rest of us don't matter? Newsflash, you're getting docked a day's pay." It wasn't anger for the sake of anger, he was just trying to make the point that he didn't actually need her around the lab. Din could cope perfectly fine on his own. It didn't matter that he had been looking forward to another day of verbal sparring, he'd get over it.

"For the last time, she was in a _coma_ and I think I might have something." A guest lecturer on bipolar disorders at Dian Keto had returned her email. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Dr Panabaker also had some experience with unusual cases such as Yusei's. "Abi, scan the schematics attached to my email and apply to holographic images one, four and five." On the opposite side of the laboratory, three brains floated in perfect harmony. "Emulate seizure with device active." Skipping through the process, Abi zoomed through the footage as they watched the stars twinkle and glitter again.

"What is this gizmo?" Grabbing the tablet, Din tried to discern the use of the device. It was smaller than his hand and full of tiny wiring but that was the extent of his findings.

"She called it a cerebral inhibitor." On the holograms, a soothing blue light met the yellow cataclysm of a seizure. "It's not designed for this but it might be able to combat the seizures. If you happen to know a brilliant enough scientist to help me." Growling at the slight, Din snatched the tablet from her hands and waved it around like a wand.

"Apply to scans one through fifteen." Nothing happened and he held the tablet back of Akiza to take. "You heard me, scans one through fifteen." Biting back a smile, she followed his instructions until three rows of holograms were dancing at her fingertips. "Right, now watch number seven. It's a bit nastier than the others and I don't want to fry this guy's brain."

For an hour, they battled back and forth to try and find some balance. Too much energy and they might risk permanent brain damage. Too little and the seizures would simply blast through the device and continue onwards. Sometimes they could get eleven brains to cooperate with their experiments, others the work would collapse in a pile of dust and shame. It was exhausting, it was maddening and it was peculiarly enjoyable. Until the Americans ruined everything.

Bursting into the lab without warning came a small man who seemed to encompass the word 'nerd' with everything from his dorky glasses to the bad haircut and sloping posture. Right behind him came a much more elegant redhead with a look of mild surprise at everything.

"Do you have _any_ idea what you've done?" Breathing through his anger, the tiny man suddenly resembled a bomb – tiny, not particularly pretty and liable to explode.

"Care to explain what you're doing in our lab?" Meeting his anger with cool indifference, she stared down the raging scientist.

"Because you've been sucking up so much processing power, we've just... how high is your security clearance?" Being a recent addition to the SRC, Akiza was on a strictly need-to-know basis. If a patient came her way, she was to be given full access to their research until a course of treatment could be chosen. After that, she was back to being a normal medic.

"That depends, is anyone hurt?" Recognising the covert warning to not slip up, the American managed to reign in his frustration.

"There's a limited amount of processing available. You're using," Eyes boggled slightly as he paid more attention to the expansive map of brains. "Fif _teen_ holograms. It's no wonder programs are crashing all over the facility."

"Douglas," The redhead in his shadow placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and calmed him back into a normal, slightly mad scientist. "Be nice. Maybe she didn't know."

"How can she not?" Turning, the pair entered a hushed discussion. "We worked months to put together a working model and it crashed after ten minutes."

"Hey!" Annoyed at the interruption and aggravated by being excluded from the discussion so fast afterwards. "Can somebody explain to me what's going on?" Exchanging a calming look with the ginger behind him, Douglas managed to keep his voice under control.

"A lot of the bigger simulations aren't run by the computers in the labs but they use processors elsewhere. For some reason, a lot of that processing is being directed exclusively to your lab." Deliberately not glancing at the reactive holograms in the corner of her vision, Akiza nodded vaguely as her intuition screamed out at her. "You're just lucky that I figured it out first. Some of the people around here _really_ don't like people messing with their stuff."

"Yeah?" Stumping up menacingly, Din smiled at Douglas in that scary way of his. "I don't suppose you've heard of me?" Behind his glasses, Douglas' eyes widened to shocked globes.

"Dr Din? Oh, it's an honour. Can I shake your hand? No, wait. Let's take a picture together." Suddenly a flustered fan, Douglas was doing everything short of drooling as he patted himself down for his phone.

"Easy there, whizz kid. Just tell my friend what we can do to fix this." Practically trembling with nervous energy, Douglas was every bit the servile servant.

"Your lab has been marked as a red priority in all the processing centres the SRC has. I mean, _I_ don't mind." Seeing Din bare his teeth was a subtle reminder that his short stature just meant he was closer to the squishier parts of his opponent. "But it means some of the other programs are more likely to lag and crash."

"Abi," Tapping her ear, Akiza tried to deal with this problem as quickly as she could. "Why is my research being given higher priority and additional processing power?"

" _Error ZeroRORORORO_ " A high-pitched squeal suddenly ran through her earpiece and she snatched it from her head.

"Something's wrong with Abi." Adrenaline raced around her system and fought her attempts to keep calm. "I'll check with Yusei." It was impossible not to catch the guilty look Douglas had. "What?"

"Well, I might have told a few other people why the computers were running slowly." Backing slowly away, visions of foresight were threatening to collide with the present. "And some of them aren't exactly the type to wait patiently when they can go right to the top." Din lunged forward and Douglas proved himself capable of putting on a fair turn of speed when the need arose.

"Looks like somebody's going to get chewed out." An industrious patch of lice in his beard found their work disrupted by a scratching hand. "I can probably find some computer hack to take the fall."

"No," Already confused by the computers, Akiza slipped the tablet into her pocket. "It's as good an opportunity to tell him about our progress. I'll go."

* * *

When she finally reached his office, it was clear that Yusei had already received numerous complaints from scientists less accommodating than Douglas.

"Yusei, I think I'm onto something if you'll just" But the palm being held up indicated that no, he wouldn't 'just' anything.

"Who gave you the authority to reassign your... Din's laboratory priority on the processing list?" It was a small slip but one that made her glow inside.

"I didn't. I asked Abi who did and she had an error before shutting down." Leaning forward on his desk, Yusei hid his face in both hands.

"Error Zero?"

"Yeah?" Some days, the desk felt more like a prison than it did a lump of wood. A barrier that separated him from the world outside.

"Normal children make do with scribbling on important bits of paper." Sighing through the gap in his palms, Yusei stood up and talked around the table to look Akiza directly in the eye. "Abigail, would you come out here please?"

From in the corner came a small child. She was young, maybe five, six at the most. More eye-shadow than was normal and dressed in a smart suit, the young girl appeared very prim and proper. She was also bright blue and moderately transparent.

"Akiza, this is Abi. Abigail, this is Akiza." Staring up at her, the small figure just flickered slightly and said nothing.

"That's a hologram." It was not unheard of for people to create virtual interfaces for their computers but Yusei had never struck her as the sort of person to do so.

"More than that." Resting one hand about the insubstantial shoulders, Yusei made the motion seem perfectly natural. "Abi is alive." To anyone else, it would have sounded crazy. Actually, it did sound crazy. But Akiza knew Yusei was sick. This was just another symptom.

" _She doesn't believe you._ " Squinting slightly, the figure seemed unfazed by a lack of corporeal form. " _You said you were going to explain to her. I even picked out this silly suit._ " Looking down at herself, the suit fizzled out to be replaced with a more normal jumper and jeans.

"Why do I get the feeling something else is going on here?" Indicating his own chair, Yusei took Akiza's as Abigail sat in the one beside him.

"What do you know about the outer buildings?" Relaxing into the deep chair, Akiza resisted the urge to fiddle with the settings a bit.

"Sector Three classification, designed for archival and records purposes." It was mundane stuff. Their primary focus was to protect the rest of New Domino in the event of a catastrophic explosion from the main hub of the SRC. "Any old or obsolete projects are stored away in one of the buildings in case they are needed later on."

"There's a bit more to it than that." She wasn't wrong, Buildings Five and Six did store a lot of records and old machines. "Buildings One through to Four are used as processing centres. There are enough chips in those buildings to build another building. Some labs have their own processing stacks to themselves but most draw their power from one of those buildings. Abigail here," Reaching out, he rested his hand on top of the armrest on her chair. "She uses all the processing power of Building Four. She's something quite special." A blue hand reached up and rest atop his, mimicking the human contact perfectly.

" _I am the result of a spontaneous computer singularity – a true artificial intelligence._ " About half the sentence was believable. As for the rest, Akiza was lost. And Abigail sensed that. " _Artificial intelligence itself is not new. Humans have been creating them for decades. However, they have long awaited the spontaneous emergence of a being such as myself._ "

"And nobody has clearance for this sort of thing. Which is why you've been telling us she's just an interface program." On the other side of the desk, Yusei looked distinctly uncomfortable at the deduction.

"Yes and no. Yes, I've told people she's just an interface and no, nobody has clearance. Actually," It was almost the same guilty look he had when she found out about Yliaster. "Nobody has clearance because nobody knows. You see, researching or creating artificial intelligence is illegal in Japan now. If I told anybody she existed, the government would shut her down. Kill her." Protective instincts inside him had refused to risk her that way.

"Can we go back to how she even exists in the first place? How can a computer just start thinking?" With death on the line, Akiza was very keen on checking out there was actually life to begin with.

"Think about the primordial soup." Some religions believe that life began with a god creating humanity as-is. Biology tends to think that life began as an accident. Back when Earth was still young and full of volcanoes – at least, according to the more exciting films – a chemical environment came about with just the right balance. Previously inorganic molecules came together and with the right conditions and reactions polymerised into complex molecules that eventually went on to become the basic building blocks for all life on the planet. "Two extremely complicated computer programs interacted and somehow created Abi."

" _I know._ " Even though just the imagination of a child, the electronic voice had dry sarcasm down flat. " _I was there._ "

"Manners." Yusei chided as he took his hand back. "My point is, the result should have been impossible. I went back and tried to replicate the phenomenon as closely as I could and nothing happened. I don't know what happened the first time but I suddenly found myself trying to explain the meaning of life to my computer."

" _That's not what happened._ " Fiddling with a nail, the young girl seemed trying to figure out the finer points of a manicure.

"Fine, I partitioned her from the mainframe and isolated her in Building Four until I could figure out what was going on." Turning to look at the projection, Yusei smiled warmly. "Took us a while to figure one another out but we got there in the end."

"So why keep her around?" Both pairs of eyes – real and holographic – turned towards her with a warning glare. "Why not have her transferred to another site? One where AI is legal?"

"Believe me, I tried." A haunted recollection passed across his eyes. Fires, crashing planes and a very distinctive dog stealing an entire tray of sandwiches. "Abigail didn't want to leave."

"Then why expose her? Why let her be an assistant to the entire SRC? I found her out because of a computer glitch. What if somebody else did the same?" At her words, the hologram suddenly vanished.

"Abi." Turning to the chair, Yusei folded his arms. "Abigail." Nothing happened. "You get back here right now!" A commanding tone entered his voice and a much less solid hologram appeared in the chair. "Care to explain to me exactly how Akiza stumbled across you?" A small mumble came but nothing else.

"An American team told me my lab was sucking up a lot of processing power to run some tests." It was what she had tried to tell him when she first got there but events had spiralled beyond her control. "I asked Abi why and she replied with,"

"Error Zero." Glaring at the young girl now, Yusei seemed to be holding his anger in check. "Error Zero means somebody has pulled a loose thread, something that could reveal what Abi really is." Solidifying slightly, the computer took charge of the conversation.

" _Like organic life, many of my systems operate independently. Cooling, processing, power distribution. I can manually control these but many of them do not need it. When you asked why your tests were given priority, the response was instinctive._ " Entry complete, Abi shut off the projection again.

"What were you working on?" Recognising the futility of trying to shout into the air, Yusei just proceeded as best he could.

"It's too early to tell but we might have found a way to keep you alive a bit longer." Pulling the tablet from her pocket, she showed Yusei the design her colleague had sent over. "It's a cerebral inhibitor. If calibrated correctly, it might be able to stop these seizures as they begin. The problem is, we'll need to isolate the exact frequency." Flickers behind Yusei resolved into Abi peering over his shoulder.

"So that's why you gave them higher priority." Dropping the tablet onto the table, he turned to smile at the image of a young girl. "I'll overlook it this time but don't do it again, okay?"

" _Only if you get better soon._ " Flashing away again, the computer left the conversation.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the elevator." Waiting by the door, Yusei smiled into the empty room before closing it behind them. "I know this is a lot to take in but I need your word you won't tell anyone about Abigail. She's only a few years old and not quite ready to be introduced to the world."

"Only if you tell me why you call her Abi to the SRC when her full name is Abigail?" The truth was settling in and she was slowly losing touch with reality as it did.

"Abigail is a hacker I hired early on to test my firewalls. She works with American intelligence so she ticked all the boxes. She was smart, funny and a bit odd." It had been easy to draw parallels between the unorthodox computer programmer and the emerging intelligence. "I needed some way to spin _my_ Abigail to the SRC so I called it A.B.I. - Advanced Biometric Intelligence."

"You sound proud of her." Smiling that favourite smile of hers, she watched herself walk into the lift and turn back around.

"Of course I am." Steel doors started to close as his smiled widened. "She's my daughter."

"How did it go?" When Akiza returned to the lab, Douglas and his crew had disappeared and she had the look of a shell-shocked sufferer. "Got the problem sorted out?"

Nodding mutely, she tried to come to grips with the revelations of the day. Yusei had somehow brought a computer to life and was raising it as his daughter. If she had a thousand guesses that morning, she wouldn't have come close to the truth.

* * *

"Still coming out tonight?" A memory sparked through the haze. Koharu, Din, something about a club.

"After the day I've had?" Running a shaky hand through her hair, she tried to adjust to her new reality. "I could really use a drink."

 _ **I originally planned this chapter quite a bit differently. There was going to be this ongoing sub-plot where Akiza slowly realises Abi doesn't work like a computer a lot of the time. But then I thought 'Hang on, a sentient super-computer stays undetected for years but Akiza just stumbles across it?' Yeah, no. Instead, I wondered what would happen if the computer responded instinctively, without noticing. Humans do it all the time and computers have pre-programmed commands that ignore other input. Same process, different platforms.**_

 _ **There will be some more information on Abi later but the reason her age is a bit vague is because she doesn't know how old she should be. Computers can work faster than humans but Abi can only process interactions as fast as Akiza and Yusei can generate them.**_

 _ **Be kind, leave a review :)**_


	20. Drinks

Akiza could count the number of times she had woken up in strange rooms on one hand. There had been the hospital where she had attacked Yusei, of course. A slight accident in Germany had knocked her out for an hour and she woke up in an emergency room. Then there was the time she woke up to blinding lights in a white room.

Grunts and splashes sounded from somewhere nearby and the smell only confirmed her suspicions somebody was being violently sick. A slight echo pointed to somebody else was also being sick albeit at a slower rate.

"Good morning." There are some voices that grate on the ears like sandpaper across silk. Obake's was low and soft enough that it didn't aggravate her headache.

"Where am I?" Risking a cerebral explosion, she forced herself upright and breathed through the pain.

"Holding cells at the SRC." A toilet flushed from the direction of the vomit and her world caved in slightly. "Your friends are in here as well."

Churning her stomach and boiling her brains, Akiza managed to open her eyes enough to scan the room. Chiyoko and Vlado were sitting against the far wall and looking deeply ashamed of themselves. Haruka was curled up on the gleaming floor and covering her head in both arms. Tom was slouched deeply in one corner with a sense of familiarity to the condition plaguing them all. Another bout of vomiting turned her head to the left where a shuttered corner of the room hid the victims she knew to be Din and Koharu.

With her friends accounted for, she was able to focus on the room. It was maybe eight feet high, ten wide and easily thirty across. Protected lights hummed and buzzed painfully overhead and there wasn't a single dark space to take shelter in. Other than the closed-off corner, there wasn't a single piece of furniture in the room. Obake was standing a short distance to her right, upright and unsuffering like the rest of them.

"Isn't there a chair or something?" Placing her hands gently across both eyes, Akiza tried to close out the world.

"These cells were designed to hold genii." Gently rocking up and down on his heels, he made use of the imprisonment by gently exercising in ways most people wouldn't notice. "There's no escape." Groaning slightly, Akiza had to force herself to stop for the pain.

"What are we doing here?" Pausing in his movement, Obake considered the possibilities for his internment. Being in a cell removed a few from the list on grounds he wouldn't make it to the middle ground otherwise.

"I am unsure." Between spikes of pain and trying to keep what little contents in her stomach inside, flashes of the night before started to come back to her.

* * *

"What is this place?" The heavy beat almost drowned out her words but Akiza had yet to see any speakers. Strobe lights flickered around the room and there was the dizzying sensation of being in several places at once.

"Chris set it up!" The same chef who had been serving lunch was now pouring several drinks at the bar that ran along one side of the club. Bottles of varying shapes and sizes were stacked behind him and several appeared to be carrying warning labels. "Instant entry to all SRC staff!"

"What's it called?" She had met Haruka at Koharu's apartment and walked to the club together. It had a strange stylised sign out front but a quick check against a list had ushered them straight into the club before she could get a proper look at it.

A throbbing pulse almost drowned out the answer as Akiza saw her friends relaxing in a booth across from the bar. Struggling against the surging crowd, she followed Haruka into the narrow cluster of seats. As if held back by some magical force, the pounding beat of the dance floor dropped to quieter levels.

"Good, isn't it?" Leaning against the table, Din was sipping from an entire pitcher of beer.

"It's counter-sonics." It wasn't just the music outside, the voices inside the booth sounded slightly muted. "All the music has a specific counter-melody piped in through those speakers." Raising her wine glass, Koharu indicated the almost invisible strips lining the inner end of the booth. "Music doesn't get in, conversation doesn't get out. Neat, huh?" It certainly helped. Once people started speaking a bit louder to overcome the quiet noise, it was actually quite comfortable. Taking a spare glass of wine from Koahru, Akiza took the opportunity to see her friends out of work.

Chiyoko had dressed herself in camouflaged trousers, a stylised skull that seemed to have been slightly insect-isised. Vlado had draped himself in a heavy jacket with a fur collar that hid most of his olive green jacket. They looked comfortable, right in the clothes. Din had even gone as far as to throw himself through a shower to wash off the worst of the grime and dressed himself in a brown leather top that had sufficient length to be a tunic on him.

Koharu had decided to step out of her suit and was resplendent in a sparkling silver sequin gown with Haruka dressed in a simple grey shirt beneath an ugly yellow jumper and Tom wearing an old college jumper with a weird triangle insignia on the shoulder. As for Akiza, she had gone back to the basics. Beneath her leather jacket, she had donned a black vest to match the dark trousers she was wearing.

"So Akiza, we've been thinking." Around the table, eyes rolled as the others realised what was coming. "Do you think we should try and make flying cars or underwater bikes next?"

"I... what?" Thrown by the question, she could see the propulsion expert in him rising to the topic.

"It's just, everybody wants a flying car but where do you keep it? What about the disturbance in wind patterns?" Both were valid points to a conversation few people would ever have. "That's where underwater comes in. Down there, the currents are a boon and the engines could run on the seawater itself."

"And I presume these drivers have gills for the long distance?" She loved watching his face fall in despair as she picked apart the winning answer.

"Gills wouldn't work long-term." Jumping in Koharu swirled her wine around in a show of intellectual snobbery. "Hosts would be unable to adapt to changing back after too long.

"Forget the gills," Tom tried desperately to steer the conversation back to mechanics.

"No, she's right." Keeping on the good side of most of her friends, Haruka was quick to follow the point. "Even if we could gene-splice them in, prolonged use would make the lungs permanently reliant on water to survive."

"Why not just design a filtration system to strip the air from the water?" Already hopelessly overridden, Tom could only watch as Chiyoko stole more of his thunder.

"What happens if it breaks while you're swimming in deep waters?" Draining his pitcher, Din seemed positively delighted to be able to both talk science and get roaringly drunk. "Gonna need something to keep you breathing until you hit the surface."

They talked for hours, arguing back and forth about dozens of ideas and debates, losing bets to Tom and his quick-handed shuffle tricks, winning them back with spontaneous rounds of pop questions. At one point, Haruka pulled out her camera and insisted on a group photo. Jokes were told, embarrassing stories revisited and rounds of exotic drinks were ordered at ludicrously low prices thanks to the perks of working at the SRC. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and jealousy is a cruel motivator.

"That is one _ugly_ jumper." Lurching out from the crowd, a boy who thought as pretty as Tom lurched into the bubble of silence near their table. "How about we take it off and see what happens?" Already dangerously close to harassment, he practically began pawing at Haruka as she tried to figure out where to hide her face.

"Hey, leave off." Rising slightly, Akiza made it clear she was not in the mood for trouble.

"Well, hello." Slapping one hand on her shoulder, Akiza had to resist the urge to snap it at the elbow and return it to its owner. "You're more my kind of girl. I'm Storm."

Dusting the offending appendage off, she rose to her full height. "Turn around, walk away and we'll let this go." Seeing an entire table of people standing up to face him, the young man waved his own group of friends over. There was considerably more of them than there was at the table.

"How about you come with me and we keep this party going elsewhere?" Lurching onto the table, Koharu smashed the bulb of her wine glass and clutched the stem like a shiv as Din held up a finger and started to drain his fifth pitcher of beer at a dangerous pace.

"Back off," Walking closer, she thrust the glass ahead of her menacingly. "Right f&*$ng now." Seeing the diminutive woman bravely leading the charge, Storm and his cronies actually laughed.

"Or what? _Little_ you is going to take me on with that _little_ thing?" Thinking he was being insulting, Storm was just digging his own grave with two shovels and a stack of mining explosives.

"This?" Appearing to notice the weapon in her hand, Koharu dropped it by his feet. "Nah, I'm just distracting you long enough that my friend can finish his drink." Ducking off to one side, Din came barrelling past at considerable speeds and launched himself headlong into Storm. The force of the blow was enough to knock them both to the floor but Din was the sort to go down swinging. His empty pitcher – made of supposedly shatter-proof materials – exploded against the knees of one body as the remaining handle was stabbed through another foot.

Lurching back, the remaining creeps tried to make a quick escape through the crowd. Being late into the night, many people had been drinking and didn't appreciate an aggressive group trying to ruin their good evening. First, one punch was thrown, then a kick missed an intended target. One drink spilt over the wrong person and suddenly a full-scale brawl was happening on the floor. Alliances were forged and broken in the strikes of a few punches. Furniture became missiles and barricade materials. Several people leapt over the bar and started lobbing bottles at the slower targets. It was utter chaos wherever they looked.

And right in the middle of it was Din, smashing limbs and bodily throwing those poor souls unfortunate enough to pick him as a target. Cramming her friends back into the booth, Akiza tried to think up a plan to escape. "Does he need any help?" Already traumatised by the unwanted advances, Haruka felt responsible for the 'plight' her friend was in as a burly man began kicking him from behind.

"I've seen Din like this before." Straightening up her dress, Koharu seemed on the verge of rugged beauty. "Trust me, he's not the one who needs help." A particularly tortured scream sounded – even over the music and counter-noise in the booth – as Din simply turned and bent the man's knee in the opposite direction of where it was meant to be going.

"We need to get out of here." Between the rush of people trying to get out of the club and others trying to get in, the main doors were a mess. "Chiyoko, can you and Vlado get Din?" She would have gone to him herself but the punches he was throwing were beyond what he normally limited himself to at the SRC. Grabbing her partner by an elbow, Chiyoko pointed to Din and mimed picking him up. Giving the most hardened smile she had ever seen, Vlado nodded and cracked his knuckles.

Between the drinks in her system and the adrenaline from the fight around her, Akiza was in a peculiar frame of mind. "Right, so everybody heads towards the entrance. Grab a chair or something and we'll smash through one of those big windows." It was not as articulate as her thesis had been but it served their purpose well enough.

As with all plans, there was a large gap between planning and reality. As they left the relative safety of the booth, a tendril of the brawl instantly reached out to snare them. Diving heroically into the fray, Tom took the brunt of the attack and displayed a professional level retaliation in the classic style of drunken boxing. Rescuing Din proved to be a minor hassle as he resisted the attempt and tried to bite the ear of a passing head as his pair of pale haired supports bodily lifted him from the ground and followed the charging pair of Akiza and Haruka. Willing to be helped just this once, Koharu was nestled in the trembling grip of Haruka and wielding a bottle in either hand that served to bludgeon anybody who picked the young woman as a target again, as was the case of a man who suddenly found his head implanted in a sparking antique jukebox.

By the time they reached the window, a bloody swath had been cut through the mob, renewing their bloodlust and providing them with a unifying target. Putting aside their reservations against violence, the group unanimously picked up a stool each, flung it at the nearest window and started running even before all the glass had fallen. Cutting through the crowd of onlookers outside, they paused to catch breath on the other side of the packed street.

"That," Breathing deeply, Akiza could feel a growing welt along her right eye. "Was not what I expected when you asked me out." Straightening up, she couldn't stop the smile crossing her face.

"Damned shame. I had them right where I wanted them as well." Ever the heroic last stander, Din would later admit that his ideal stance in the fight had been himself against everyone else. His reasoning, he would explain, was that it meant everything he saw was an enemy and he didn't have to worry about hurting his friends.

"Great way to blow of steam." Lowered back to the floor, Koharu was handing around the stolen bottles to reinvigorate her comrades in arms.

"Don't tell the family." Holding a finger to her lips, Chiyoko was winking at her friend.

"Time to go." This last came from Tom's honed criminal senses. Down one end of the street came the distinctive sound of revolving police car sirens. Out of the shattered remains of the club came the unruly mob, several members spotting the tiny clutch of people across the road as smoke began billowing behind them.

"Run?" Suddenly finding herself with a bottle in the hand and her cares in the wind, Akiza looked to her friends to see the same answer in every face. Lurching off in sporadic directions, they managed to marshal their vectors into a wobbly unification and charged off into the night.

* * *

"All of you." Breaking through her disjointed recollections of running through the streets with her friends, the short wall beside Obake suddenly slid open to reveal Yusei flanked by several armoured security guards. "My office. _Now_." Turning on his heel, he strode down the lengthy corridor as the stumbling drunks tried their best to find their feet.

"Is there time for some coffee?" Emerging from the toiled at the far end of the room, Din's smock was stained in several bright shades of colour.

"What do you think?" Hoisting a suspect each, only Obake was trusted to stand unaided as the group was forcibly escorted over to Building Eight and left to stumble through the door into Yusei's office. To avoid letting Koharu escape his glare, she was the only one allowed to sit in a chair.

"Who wants to start?"

"I would like to say..." A rare chance at speech from Obake quickly withered under the glare he received. One of only two sober people in the room, the intellectually disinclined couldn't muster up a reason as to why he was actually there.

"I received a rather large bill from Chris this morning." A thick wedge of papers was stacked on a purposely clear portion of his desk and looked to be filled with tiny print. "Apparently the insurance companies are refusing to pay out on what was mostly purpose-built items that he personally created." An image of tiny sub-woofers and delicate glass bottles floated before muddled minds. "Then there's the police report." Something about the police sounded familiar from the night before but nothing concrete presented itself. "Apparently a group of distinguished scientists was caught, what term did they use?" A nearby file held a report from the night before and Yusei pulled it free to find the missing word. "'Carousing'. You were 'carousing' about the town after carrying out irreparable damage to Chris' club." Both hands slammed against the table and the line-up winced at the sudden noise. "According to the fire department, they were tempted to let it burn all the way down to save Chris the trouble of tearing everything out and starting from scratch."

"Surely the fire would have spread to the adjoining... oh." The inference finally made it through to Obake's mind halfway through the sentence.

"'Oh' indeed. And while we're at it." Another folder was dragged onto the stage and Obake was quick to read the first inverted page. "I see an 'ah' forming. Do you want to say 'ah'?" An angry Yusei was somehow both amazing and frightening. Like seeing an angry kitten clawing away at the owner's hand. There was no danger of permanent damage but the emotional undercurrents were more than sufficient. "These are claims being filed by one of your colleagues. His wife is currently lodging divorce papers after receiving an anonymous email telling of charges to escort services from a secret bank account." The way he went into the pointed specifics gave a slight indication that Yusei agreed with their stance, if not the cruel retaliation being given. "You apparently inferred that you knew of his extra-marital affairs at lunch a few days ago." Political indifference seemed the best road forward at the time and Obake started to stare blankly over Yusei's left shoulder. "Given the lack of proof, I have granted him a month's leave to settle the discussions. I advise you keep your distance." A polite nod indicated barely any listening.

"As for the club, Chris has agreed not to press charges if you cover the cost of repairs." There are many preparations that go into a speech but few before Yusei had ever spent several hours hunting for an old calculator with buttons that rattled when it was slammed dramatically on the table. "If you each donate half your salary, the total should be paid in," He tapped long enough to cause concern amongst the group. "Three years. Sooner if you agree to do some work for him in your spare time." Another shout raised several more winces and Koharu collapsed under the lack of motor control. In the ensuing silence, Obake coughed quietly and smiled politely at that same spot just over Yusei's left shoulder. "Pardon? Did you have something to add?" Sky blue eyes tried to pierce through the veil as Obake slowly let his gaze move to somewhere on the far side of the wall.

"Might I ask why I am being included? I was neither at the bar nor," A tiny flicker of a smile darted across his pale face. "'Carousing' through town." That tiny note of humour actually started a group of chuckles from the accused before a stern glare from the only other sober person in the room silenced them.

"You all messed up, you all contribute." That untrained glare moved to a low cupboard underneath one window in an unsettling manner.

"Under Section I, Article Thirty-Three of the Fourth Geneva Convention, I hereby submit that this is a violation of my human rights." Stunned silence reigned throughout the room. In every culture and era throughout history, there are unspoken laws. Do not anger the gods, do not attack guardians of the peace, do not invoke human rights to get out of paying a bill. You know, the little stuff. It appeared that not only had Obake not been filled in on these but he could very likely be unaware of their existence altogether.

Reaching into an inside pocket, he gently withdrew a slim black notebook. Carefully opening the front cover, he turned one page after another. As both eyes flickered across the contents, it appeared that he did not realise the whispering paper was the only noise in the room. "Ah." Sliding a finger down the page, he stopped his nail just beneath one thin grey line. "'No protected person'," He paused and looked up from his book to the stunned face opposite him. "That means any civilians not engaged in conflict or directly involved in the situation at hand. 'No protected person may be punished for an offence that they have not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.'" Closing the book as carefully as he opened it, it was returned back to an inside pocket.

For the first time since she had met him, Akiza had the opportunity to actually look at Obake. There wasn't an emergency that needed her attention or darkness to cloud her vision. Other than a terminal hangover (at least, she hoped it would kill her soon) there was nothing to stop her from actually seeing the young man standing on her left.

In the bright light of day – which she wished would stop being so bright – the air of mystery she had applied to him melted away rather rapidly. That thick covering over his upper face was just a bit of cloth that could have come from a decent scarf or a bag of cutoffs. His posture had been perfect before but there was a slight twitching in the fingers clasped in front of him now. Both shoulders stooped forward slightly, his head hung lower than most. If it wasn't for the bandage across his eyes, she could pass him in the street twenty times a day and never really notice him. Even the black curly hair she had noticed previously was just grown too long and in need of a trim.

"Fine." Startled from her observations, Akiza tuned back into Yusei's verdict. "But don't think about going near May... your colleague." A minor slip seemed to add more weight to him agreeing with the accused party.

"Indeed. I shall be unavailable for a few weeks." Already on thin ice, Obake meekly accepted the punishment and faded from attention again.

"As for the rest of you," Turning his burning gaze at the recovering partiers, Yusei channelled his frustration at being evaded into devising a suitable punishment for them.

"Warm drinks and dark rooms?" Chiyoko's tone - if not her words - raised a smile from the Croat that was always by her side.

"All around." The order came as a surprise. Most bosses would have forced them back to work and let them suffer. "I don't want to see any of you here for the rest of the day. Everybody should go home and get as much sleep as possible. But tomorrow," Hard glares lessened the comforting news of his words. "I expect you all to be here on time and pulling double shifts. Consider yourselves on probation for the next few weeks. Another mistake like this and you're done." Enough doom settled about the office that Koharu falling from her chair didn't seem too far out of place.


	21. Treatment

"Is Vella always this noisy?" Back for a daily visit, the falcon had stuck around to burble in ears as the pair suffered slowly in the confines of their lab. Even with a full day of healing, the persistent pain of a hangover still throbbed through Akiza's skull.

"Only when we deserve it." With less patience in his pain, the large bowl of crushed ice Din was squatting in had arrived within minutes. Collapsed on the table, Akiza was constantly listening to burbles of noise that sounded uncannily like laughter. Any attempts to wave the bird away were only met with stern indifference and a slight clutching of talons when she returned to rest on Akiza's shoulder.

"Isn't there some super-drug to get us through this?" Stumbling upright, she rummaged through the cupboards to find a rat for the buzzard to snack on.

"Top-secret job. A few biology idiots cooked up some bacteria cocktail." Cramming himself a bit lower into the ice, he risked frostbite as the ice crept higher on his body. "Got a few vials locked up somewhere in case an idiot drinks what we did but in less time." Sneezing, he wrapped a patchwork blanket about himself. "No use trying to find out where, they got tight-lipped after I vomited in their algae pool trying to steal it. Good times."

Another wave of nausea had his head spinning and the bile-tainted burp was enough to send Akiza to the window in case her own stomach churned over again.

"Maybe if we're very good, somebody will come and kill us." Grabbing a handful of ice, Din slammed it against his head.

"Good luck has a way of avoiding me." Touching Vella affectionately on one claw, she held her arm out for the bird to waddle down and soar into the wind from. "We should get back to work before somebody calls Yusei on us." Pulling out the tablet, she winced as the holograms stung her eyes. After the encounter with the American scientists, she and Din were slumming it with only the one hologram but it was still enough to drive steel needles into her brain.

"How far did we get last time?" Everything was still a mild blur from the night before. A nightmare had plagued her, born from the mocking laughter of Musume, Trudge and even Carly when they heard about the incident that had almost lead to her arrest.

"Trying to calibrate the cerebral inhibitor." Unwilling to move from his therapeutic posture, Din simply shuffled his tub across the floor until he could lean against the central workstation in the furnished half of the room and still able to squint at the projection of Yusei's brain.

"Let's start at ten percent of maximum output." Adjusting figures and parameters on the tablet, she let the program start to play itself out.

* * *

For hours, she and Din continued to tinker with the scenarios and simulations. Each time they made progress with one recording, another would throw up a problem they couldn't have accounted for and they were forced to start again. After the first few hours, Din called a brief halt to dump his warm water down a drain and put on a shirt. With a substantial bill still owed to Chris and a frosty reception from any member of staff that enjoyed a nice place to hang out – and there were few members of staff at odds with the chef – they decided to skip lunch and press on well into the evening.

"Just supposing that we use this device to actually cure our patient." Strictly speaking, the cerebral inhibitor wouldn't cure Yusei. It would hopefully suppress the attacks long enough for his own immune system to do something about. "Who gets the credit? Whoever credited this machine or me for figuring out the successful application?"

"Where do I come into play?" Tired from her hangover and double shift, Akiza was ready to throw in several towels for the night.

"As the leading researcher, I'll assume full credit." Dipping a rag into a bowl of chilled water, Din wrapped it around his head like a leaky bandanna. "I'll make sure to mention you. A footnote, maybe a fun anecdote about the time you likened my wisdom to the glory of the cosmos."

"In other words, to lie and steal my credit?" Adjusting the conditions again, Akiza set off another test.

"You can get equal credit if you let me do all the awards." Staring at the dwarf, she tried to imagine him in a suit of any kind. Maybe a jacket – a straitjacket.

"Deal." A delightful little ping sounded from her tablet as the simulation completed with a positive result. "On to the next one." Reaching for the tablet, she was surprised to find Din stopping her hand.

"That's the last one." Even through the banter and posturing, he was always paying attention to the work he was doing. Maybe a lesser mind could have lost focus but this was Din. Nothing got by without him noticing it.

"Abi," Tapping her earpiece, Akiza tried to keep the exuberance inside her from spilling out. "Test this against all the scans we have for this project." Lights flickered and whirled as columns and rows of holograms sparked into life. Pulling all available processing under her control, the sentient computer even went as far as to include half of Building Four – her own personal haven – into getting the calculations crunched as quickly as possible.

" _Simulations complete. No negative results._ " Whooping in joy, Akiza actually slapped Din on the back before she realised how disgusting his shirt was.

"Yusei," Wiping the sweat and grime across her trousers, she used her left hand to call him. "I think we've found something."

" _What?_ " It wasn't an actual question, simply an exclamation of incredulity.

"I'm coming right over." She could already hear the screams of outrage scientists as programs and simulations across the SRC fell dead from the sudden redirection of processing power. "Abi will send you what I have." Scooping up the tablet, she paused in the door to look back at Din. "Aren't you coming?" Baring his teeth in a smile, he pulled the bandanna down over one eye.

"After the other day, people are going to be coming right here to start the blame." Swinging across the room, he pulled a thick wooden pole from the storage cupboards in the corner. "It's not that often that people run towards me." Stumping back around, he was greeted by an empty room. "I still want that damn credit!" Leaning out into the hallway, he was in time to see the first of many angry faces start towards his door.

* * *

Putting on a turn of pace that would shame even Obake, Akize made it to Building Eight in record speeds. Every time she had to stop for even a second – to open doors, wait for elevators stumble and catch her breath – was another moment she felt the satisfaction of diagnosing a successful treatment course power through her. By the time she reached Yusei's office and stood proudly in front of his desk, he had barely finished scrolling through the results.

"I've been looking over the findings of your research." For such a short time-frame, Akiza had made incredible progress into the cerebral inhibitor. It was an impressive feat of technological and neurological advancement for such a small time and not to be taken lightly in any circles. "Working with Din really paid off. When you're working." A raised eyebrow pointed towards the incident that had last brought her to his office.

"From what I hear, the police are still trying to figure out what happened." Not that guilt had stopped Haruka from apologising to them all and bringing around trays of food. She and Chris seemed to have reached an understanding as to what had happened to his club. As far as the rest of her friends were concerned, she was avoiding answering any direct questions about the chef's feelings towards them.

"These things take time. Others do not." Reaching into his top drawer, Yusei laid a thick metal oval on the table.

"What is that?" Picking up the device, she flipped it over in her hands to better ascertain a function.

"A cerebral inhibitor." Casting her mind back to the blueprints in Din's lab, Akiza could instantly see that this model was more advanced than the design she had been sent.

"Where did you get it?" Handing it back, she already knew the answer.

"Dr Cavanagh originally designed this device whilst working alongside Dr Panabaker. Dr Valdes, their associate, was kind enough to send me some schematics." Taking the disc, Yusei turned it in his hands as he tried to lessen the blow. Every time Akiza made the slightest progress, it ended up being down an avenue he had already exhausted. "It works, more or less. But such a device was not designed for long-term usage. If I use it too much, there's a risk of permanent neurological suppression." In essence, to stop his brain overheating, Yusei could end up restricting his intellect to the same levels as Jack without coffee – a total idiot. "I was hoping that there was a way to counteract the effects but I haven't made any progress so far." After sixteen months of work, he had concluded the effects were unmanageable and searched for a separate solution. "I use it when I need to spend time away from the SRC." Curling his hand about the device, Yusei couldn't bring himself to look at her.

"I'm sorry. I should have finished reading the files." In her haste to develop a cure, any sort of cure, she had only skimmed a few of the larger files. Eight years of detailed research was impossible to fight into such a short time-frame.

"I don't want you to be _sorry_!" Slamming his fist onto the table, a deep cut sliced through his hand as the edge of the device was pressured into his palm. "That's why I gave you this assignment."

"What?" Sliding herself into the chair, she watched him drop the bloodied instrument onto his desk.

"Every time we have to bury a friend, everyone around the grave stands there and thinks they could have done more. If they had noticed sooner, acted quicker." Pulling open his drawer, he angrily swept the instrument inside and slammed it shut again. "Eight years, sixteen deaths. Six from natural causes, seven from crime and three from incidents in the SRC." Watching the oil of his mortal engine slowly ebb away, he counted the drips onto the table. "And every time I have to stand with those families and wonder what I could have done better." Leaning back in his chair, he kept the bleeding hand where it lay. "So I wanted to give you the opportunity to see there was no cure, no quick fix. In less than a year, I'll be dead. I don't want my family looking down on my body and wondering what they could have done better." Unable to stand the look in her eyes, he looked back out the window.

Tearing fabric distracted from his pity party and forced him to actually look at Akiza as she torn the sleeve from her eggshell blue scrubs. "Maybe you've given up," Grabbing his wrist, she wrapped the cloth tight about his hand and held it in place with her own grip. "But I still have a few months to look at the data and find a cure." Holding the bandage in place, she stared down her friend with enough intensity to actually make him think she could still do it.

"If you do, promise to never stop holding it over me." It was not often that people in positions of power come with humility but Yusei was smart enough to see when it was needed.

"Okay." Holding the bandage in one hand, she swiped a stapler from his desk and used it to clip the covering into place. "That should probably do well enough for now but you should still have it looked at."

"Whatever the doctor orders." Holding his hand upright to slow the bloodflow, he gave her a crooked grin. "You do know there's a first aid box in the elevator?" Embarrassment bloomed across her face as she realised she was still holding his hand.

Before the moment could progress any further, the forgotten phone on the side of the desk rang.

"It's from Nanashi." Taking back his bleeding hand, Yusei flipped his phone open. A quick glance gave him all the information he needed. Holding out the phone, he let Akiza see the one-word message still scrolling across the screen. _Tomorrow._


	22. End of the Beginning

It was late in the evening, the setting sun casting long shadows and shafts of light through the city spires beyond the window. Yusei and Akiza were sitting in his office, waiting for the phone to ring as they tried to choose dinner.

"How long do you normally have to wait?" Yusei had taken advantage of his position to ask Chris for some food. A veritable armada of catering trolleys had been sent over to Building Eight and were currently cluttering up the office. It was enough food to last Yusei through to the end of his days if he remembered to put it in a fridge.

"Normally?" Picking a selection of sandwiches, he pried up a slice of bread to examine the goat cheese inside. "Until they want something." Until Akiza's luggage had been handed over, his position with Yliaster had been all give. This was the first time he had asked for something in return. "Once I've solved their problems, they tend to go away again. Until they want something else."

"I'm disappointed in you." Finding a shelf of German cuisine, she helped herself to some delicately season wurst. "I expected more secret meetings with shadowy figures in dark alleys." Truthfully, she did find the idea that Nanashi had Yusei's personal phone number unsettling. It was the phone he used for his friends, family and life away from work. That Yliaster was included in that list didn't sit right with her.

"My trench-coat is away for repairs." Helping himself to a small selection of finger sandwiches, Yusei poured a small glass of mineral water and settled down in his chair. "And the city doesn't budget for a spotlight with my name on it." After a disastrous affair involving a sky-writer and an obsessed fan, Yusei's name had been ordered stricken from all unauthorised publications.

"What about a secret phone number?" Putting her own plate on the desk, Akiza speared a small piece of sausage with a fancy silver fork Chris had provided. "One only for the police and Yliaster?"

"Tried that for the police once. We process evidence when the city labs get backed up." It had been legally shaky the first few cases but the SRC was technically a New Domino institution. With the right security precautions, evidence went through a lot faster with the internationally funded machines than it did in the under-staffed city labs. "They partnered me with this nice politician who took no pleasure in reminding me I was a criminal once." Within three days, the partnership had been officially dissolved. "If the police need me, Trudge can reach out."

"What do we do about Yliaster?" In former days, they would have been terrified over the mere mention of the name.

"Nanashi keeps his word." Other than the conversation, it was a nice dinner. "When we figure out why you've been involved, that will be the end of it. Nobody gets hurt, you get your life back."

"And you continue working with them?" Silence greeted her words. "What happens when you die? Yliaster just keeps on leaving us alone until we're old and in our graves?"

"I wa... _am_ going to contact them when it's closer to the end." Sipping his water, Yusei smiled sadly to himself. "People tend to have more sympathy for a dying man." Their morose conversation was cut short as the phone finally rang. "Here we go." Taking another mouthful of water, Yusei answered the phone. "Nanashi."

"Yusei." A cold wind seemed to rattle through the wind. "Is Dr Izinski there?"

Looking across the table, Yusei searched for an answer.

"I'm here." Pushing the rest of her food away, she lent towards the phone.

"I have uncovered some... distressing information." If Nanashi had been physically in the office, Yusei would have directed him towards the romantic bottle of champagne still chilling in a frosty tub of ice before asking for help hiding Chris' body. "In recent years, Yliaster has been undergoing a few difficulties." Through the combined effort of their collective wills, nobody mentioned the reasons why. "Some members lost faith, the structure started to lose cohesion. Before we knew it, we had almost drifted apart." For such a powerful and ancient organization, Yliaster had unravelled amazingly fast. "I thought that it was my leadership, a firm hand that kept us all together. Since our last conversation, I have learned that Yliaster has splintered."

"Factions?" It was the only response that made sense. How Nanashi could be both the leader and powerless. Why those he commanded were still rebels at the same time.

"Indeed. From what little I could gather, it appears that there is another contender for my position." This was unwelcome news on all fronts. With Nanashi, they had established a shaky rapport. If somebody new ascended to the throne, it would not be for the better. "It is not yet clear who these defectors hold their allegiance to or why but there have been a few solid leads."

"Is there anything we can do?" Noticing the look she was getting, Akiza nodded pointedly at the phone.

"Better the demon you know, is that it?" A polite little laugh fell flat in the room. "Actually, I have the same ideal. Whoever is trying to usurp me is an unknown. I would gladly give them my position if I thought it would benefit Yliaster but I doubt it. For now, we have a similar agenda." Lowering his plate to avoid making noise, Yusei chewed on a small prawn.

"What exactly is it you want us to do?" In this new partnership, there would be no give and take. Nanashi needed Yusei and Yusei needed Nanashi. It was that simple. They were not friends.

"There have been some reports of a plan I never approved. If you would be willing to dismantle it, I would be most agreeable."

"What do we have to do?" A chair squeaked somewhere on the far end. One of the two scientists wondered if Nanashi was doing a dramatic swivel.

"It would appear a large number of Yliaster agents have decided to drastically spread our influence." It was a simple sentence but one that would soon have far-reaching ramifications. "More with numbers that simple skill, they intend to win the Legend of Duelist Kingdom tournament in August."

"Sorry," Rubbing fingers into her temples, Akiza battled a sudden, pounding headache. "The Legend of Duelist Kingdom. A tournament so private and secure, Industrial Illusions has arranged dozens of versions across the world to protect the real one. So secret, nobody knows anything about it beyond the name. So large, over a million competing teams had already signed up. _That_ Legend of Duelist Kingdom?"

"Is there another?" Not rude but not kind either, the tone cut through her objections. "I am not ashamed to admit Yliaster does not have a large number of Duellists on hand but as many as a thousand teams may have entered." To most people, a thousand teams was a lot. "Some will have hired other Duellists to aid them, others could be giving teams cards and support in exchange for favours later on." Meaning that _upwards_ of a thousand teams was not outside the realms of possibility.

"So what do you want _us_ to do?" Heart pounding, Yusei tried to imagine that many people storming New Domino. It would be a mob capable of wiping out his city.

"Simple, really. I want you to win the tournament before these betrayers can." Silence spread throughout the office.

"Sorry, it sounded like you wanted me to drop everything and go join a Duel Monsters tournament?" Part of Yusei had been drooling over the prospect for months but he had decided not to enter his name. There was too much work to do and a high chance somebody would uncover his condition. Too many risks, nothing to gain.

"It did sound that way, didn't it?" Although mortal enemies, the pair seemed to needle one another like old friends. "Imagine the chaos if you do not. Yliaster without a clear leader, factions breaking away with their own agendas. It is not impossible that some of them might think disposing of the Signers would be preferable to not controlling them." It was a terrifying thought. On the one hand, Yusei could be responsible for the deaths of his friends. On the other, if they died without a bloodline to continue in their place, humanity would only have five millennia before the Dark Signers rose unopposed. "I would send a team of my own people but they are not to be trusted right now. What is it fans say? 'I'll be rooting for you'?" Before Yusei could muster a response, the line had already gone dead.

Saying nothing, Yusei folded himself into his chair and stared at the immobile phone.

Not sure of what to say, Akiza leaned against the wall and picked at an offensive piece of sausage.

It was clear what they needed to do. A Duel Monsters champion could go almost everywhere, do most anything. Spreading influence around like so much fear, Yliaster could tighten their grip around the world if Nanashi ordered it or not.

"So." It was always there, burning a hole in his attention.

"So." Akiza didn't know. As far as anyone else was concerned, he had donated his Duel Runner to the New Domino Duel Academy for the best mechanics to work on under the supervision of their teachers. It was probably if several hundred little pieces at that moment.

"We can't do it, of course." Even as he turned his gaze out of the window, that pressure he could feel from across the city still pounded against his skull.

"Of course." Tracking the bubbles rising in the drinks trolley, she watched them burst and said nothing active.

"There is too much to do here." Picking idly at his desk, that throbbing in his skull could have come from a brain aneurysm he was expecting any second now.

"And you can't control your condition." Chewing on a tomato, Akiza wondered how Chris kept all his produce so fresh. "Not even for a night."

"I can use a cerebral inhibitor to disrupt my higher brainwave functions." The device had allowed him to mask his condition on the rare occasion he left the SRC before. "Long-term use will leave me a vegetable but it can do for a few days."

"Besides, the entrance regulations are quite clear – only actively participating Duellists are allowed to attend." During her quieter moments, Akiza had looked at maybe entering the contest. As part on the entrance criteria, it had been ruled that only Duellists who had taken part in at least one organised Duel tournament within the past year were allowed in. Though the terminology had extended even to community tournaments, she had not professionally used her Duel Disk in almost three years.

"Yes, but I've been doing charity appearances. I should qualify." Though only appearing to raise money, his entrance in various sponsored Duels would technically allow him in.

"Still, it's a shame you can't go." It was a wonder that his head hadn't exploded under the strain. Maybe it still would.

"Akiza?" Resisting the urge to scratch an itch forming between his shoulders, Yusei tried to catch his friend's eye. "You realise this is a trap?"

"Of course it is." Chewing absently on a stick of celery, she stared fixedly at her plate. "All those Yliaster Duellists, Shadow Cards. All aimed at you." Smiling brightly, she seemed to have moved past the issue. "Best we just inform the tournament committee and let them sort it out."

"Do you think you're being smart?"

"I should hope so," Lowering her plate onto a nearby trolley, she blinded him with her brightest smile. "I have two degrees to prove it."

Neither of them moved.

Neither of them breathed.

Neither of them blinked.

"Somebody will have to take care of Hoshi." As a street cat, Hoshi could survive on her own for years but she knew Yusei would try and use the cat as an excuse.

"Trudge can do it. He has before." Holding out long enough to earn three bottles of Russian vodka when Yusei had to make a trip out that way, Trudge had shown an unnaturally gentle side of his to the cat over the few days it was in his care.

"But the tournament lasts two weeks. Can you afford to take that time off?" Yusei gave a sour grunt.

"I haven't taken a day off in three years. Trust me, I've got enough holiday." She fished around for something else to object to.

"Don't forget, you have meetings with the department heads. They can't get by without you." This time, he barked out a short laugh.

"Get by without me? It would be a dream for most of them if I was..." In the middle of his sentence, Yusei suddenly realised how smoothly Akiza had switched their positions in the argument. "If anything strange happens, I want to hear about it that minute."

"Of course. I'll stay with Koharu while you're gone." She wasn't going to fuss or shout about how unfair it was that she had to stay behind. They were adults now, they had jobs and responsibilities. And Akiza hadn't been at the SRC long enough to accrue any holiday time. It was also safest for her to stay in New Domino where every camera in the city would track her movements, courtesy of the controlling influence of Abi.

Picking up his phone, she held it out for him to take. "Any idea where you can find a Turbo Duel team at this hour?" Taking the handset from her Yusei scrolled through his contacts list.

"I can think of a few people." Holding the phone to his ear, he cracked a smile as the line began to ring.

* * *

A note had been left propped up on the table with her name on it. No good news had ever come from a message left behind by the absent writer so Akiza put it to one side while she did the small jobs any home comes up with. First, she washed up the coffee cups left behind from her stale breakfast that morning. Then she straightened the cushions on the sofa. Wiped down the surfaces and put away the clean dishes. Grabbed a small bowl of leftovers to microwave for a quick dinner and set a place at the table, leaving the note where it was until she had finished eating the congealed noodles.

When the last scrap of vegetable had been fished from the endless curve of the dish and she had sated her thirst with an extra glass of water, she sat back and stared at the note. The handwriting was just like Yusei's, so neat and fluid. Holding it in one hand, she flipped it open and read the short message inside.

 _I'm not one for long goodbyes and we don't really know each other anyway. Thanks for everything. It's time for me to live my life as best I can. See you around._

 _Musume._

Acting on some manipulative instinct for comfort, Hoshi hopped up onto her lap and began purring for attention. Reaching down one hand, she scratched the tiny cat behind its ears. Staring at the wall and stroking the cat, Akiza mused over the coming battle and tried to squash her resentment at the hand fate had played her, forcing the good doctor onto the sidelines of the battle as danger stirred in her life once again.

Unnoticed by the participants of this dangerous game that unfolded on a grand scale, a new player rose. It had no name yet and it was not as powerful as the others but it moved in unexpected ways. Silent and still, it said nothing as it watched the peaceful precursor come to an end.

In his ivory tower, high above the city he loved, the smartest man alive stared out his window at the skyline. Night brought darkness and terror to his sleep. It would not be allowed to spread whilst he was alive. "It begins."

Far across the world, sitting on a throne without compare, the darkest threat to humanity stirred. Nobody had seen its true form yet it had thousands of followers from all walks of life to command. For the first time in years, it spoke aloud. "It all begins."

Buried somewhere so deep that most humans would never see, a deadly creature awoke from its slumber. Sitting on a lonely rooftop, Musume felt the savage power within the confines of her soul, slowly burning through her. She had hoped that it was over but she was prepared to return to the fight. This time was strange, dangerous. A new history, a new "Now."

 _ **Part II of the story is now live. Check my profile for a link.**_

 _ **See you soon :)**_


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